Over the last few days, two Indian lenders have separately formed joint ventures with two local cellcos to offer mobile banking services.
Bharti Airtel will reportedly team up with State Bank of India (SBI) to offer banking products and services mainly…
Over the last few days, two Indian lenders have separately formed joint ventures with two local cellcos to offer mobile banking services.
Bharti Airtel will reportedly team up with State Bank of India (SBI) to offer banking products and services mainly in rural areas where access to banks is more difficult. The two JV partners are expected to invest an initial Rs1bn (US$22m) into the JV, which is scheduled to be completed by 31 March 2011.
Similarly, Vodafone Essar and ICICI Bank recently said they had entered into a similar partnership.
“This partnership is expected to bring the un-banked and under-banked population into the organised financial services framework and assist in furthering the electronic payments market in India. ICICI Bank will leverage the distribution strength of Vodafone, which manages over 1.5 million retail points for acquiring customers and servicing them,” an ICICI statement read.
Speaking on the alliance, Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, said: “Mobile penetration is growing exponentially in the country of which the rural market forms a major contributor. There is a huge potential for offering mobile banking in these regions, which will facilitate access to the financially excluded parts of the society and ensure that benefits from various welfare and growth programs of the government reach them along with other financial services and products.”
A go-to-market plan is expected in the next few weeks.
