RBI approves Nokia mobile money transfer

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has permitted YES Bank to provide mobile money services in association with Nokia. The pilot in Pune will end in a couple of months, the result of which will presumably be inputs for the RBI to regulate the roll-out of the services in India, reports M. Ramesh of BusinessLine.

For a customer to start using this service, he has to first go to any of the Nokia retail outlets and fill a form which makes you an account holder with YES Bank. Nokia promises that the process will not take more than 15 minutes. Then he can deposit an amount at the Nokia outlet and in minutes the 'credit' appears on the mobile phone. After this, he can make payments at shops, pay electricity and water bills and even transfer funds to another person.

Obopay, a California-based company, in which Nokia has a stake, offers the technology back-up for YES Bank. Obopay charges two percent of the value of payments as commission, except for utility bills, where the payment would be between Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 a transaction.

Currently, only YES Bank is offering such a service, but soon other banks could follow suit. Nokia has initiated discussions with a few other banks, but since it is up to the banks to apply for permission to the RBI, Nokia does not want to disclose their names or suggest a timeline for the launch of the service.