The m-purse

Calcutta, April 3: If you have a mobile phone, you no longer need to carry a wallet. You can use an m-Wallet instead to make payments.

Standard Chartered Bank, in association with Visa, has introduced this concept for Manhattan credit card users, who can pay for purchases using their mobile phones.

m-Wallet has been launched as a pilot project for select Manhattan customers in Mumbai and Bangalore. Among 1,000 customers in Bangalore, 163 have opted for m-Wallet. In Mumbai, the process has recently started. At the moment, m-Wallet users can transact through 15 outlets in Bangalore and Mumbai.

?The customer base will grow since we foresee this technology to rule the roost in the future. We expect more cities to be associated with this innovation,? said Murali M. Natrajan, head - consumer banking, India & Nepal.

The rollout schedule will be decided based on the success of the pilot project, said Natrajan. ?The decision will be shaped by the expansion plans, availability of the EDC adapters and penetration levels of high-end GPRS Java-enabled mobile handsets,? he added.

Customers need to download and install a Java application, which is available free, using GPRS on their mobile phones. After installing the application software, the user has to download the virtual Manhattan card to his mobile to get started. All details of the download sequence for both the application and the virtual card are available in a simple user guide.

The customer can then make payments by beaming the card details to the swipe machine at the payment counter using the infrared mode from the mobile phone. There is no need to swipe the card to complete the payment.

At the merchant?s end, a special adapter will be fitted to the swipe machine, which can recognise the card details beamed. ?That is why we have selected only a few outlets and are doing intensive expansion work at these outlets,? Natrajan added.

To use an m-Wallet, the PIN has to be entered each time a retail transaction is made. Hence, this virtual card cannot be used by anyone else unless this PIN has been shared. Therefore, customers also need not worry about the card being stolen or lost.

The m-Wallet technology has been developed by Tata Consultancy Services and C-SAM Inc.