The Union Bank of India (UBI) has joined hands with Nokia to launch the Union Bank Money service, powered by Nokia, across India, starting with the National Capital Region.
The service is already available to consumers in Gurgaon, and will be soon go live in Delhi, Faridabad and Noida. This will be followed by a nationwide roll-out over the next few months. The service specifically targets users, who do not have a bank account today, by providing access to financial services through their mobile phones and driving financial inclusion.
For customers in the no-frill category, the turnover will have an annual ceiling and the prepaid card will have a balance ceiling as per RBI guidelines. Other customers, who complete KYC compliance at the Bank, can use the product without any restriction on turnover. The service will enable consumers to transfer money to other individuals, withdraw cash from business correspondents cash-out outlets (registered Nokia stores) and ATMs, pay utility bills as well as recharge prepaid SIM cards (top-ups) by using their mobile devices.
The Union Bank Money powered by Nokia operates across all handsets in India. Nokia is pre-installing the application on a wide range of mobile handsets across price points. The application can also be installed nearly on all already existing Nokia handsets in the country.
Speaking on the launch, M.V. Nair, chairman and managing director, Union Bank of India, said, ?We strongly believe that Union Bank Money will augment financial inclusion amongst the unbanked and under-banked consumer segments by bringing financial services through the mobile device. Technology is a great enabler for banking services and our partnership with Nokia will help us offer anytime, anywhere financial services to consumers across the country. Once rolled out across the nation, Union Bank Money will be the single largest network in India to provide mobile financial services to consumers in urban as well as penetrate rural areas to tap the unbanked populace.?
?Nokia is building an open ecosystem for mobile payments in India with multiple partners (banks, merchants, billers, service providers), to drive basic financial services across the country. Our partnership with UBI will help connect the unbanked population in the country by leveraging the wide reach of our combined networks and the deep penetration of mobile services in the country. The service will drive financial inclusion by eliminating dependence on the physical presence of a branch or availability of internet banking services,? said D. Shivakumar, vice president and managing director, Nokia India.
