Vodafone India, s and ICICI Bank, on Friday announced a strategic alliance to launch a unique mobile money transfer and payment service ‘m-pesa’.

‘m-pesa’ is the trademark of Vodafone. The announcement was made by Marten Pieters, MD & CEO, Vodafone India Ltd. and Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank. Service will help Indians with money transfer and wide range of mobile payment services and m-commerce.
 
Vodafone India through its 100% subsidiary, Mobile Commerce Solutions Ltd. (“MCSL”) and ICICI Bank have finalized plans to launch mobile payment services this year, under the brand name ‘m-pesa’. This offering will comprise: a mobile money account with ICICI Bank and a Mobile Wallet issued by MCSL.
 
The mobile payment service will be launched initially in the eastern region of the country Kolkata, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand and then will be rolled out to other parts of the country in a phased manner.
 
This innovative offering will give the customer a comprehensive service such as;
Cash deposit and withdrawal from designated outlets, money transfer to any mobile phone in India, Range of mobile payment services including purchase of mobile recharge, recharge of DTH services and utility bill payments, Money transfer to any bank account in India and Payments at select shops.
 
The partnership between Vodafone and ICICI Bank effectively leverages the strengths of Vodafone’s significant distribution reach and the security of financial transactions provided to customers by ICICI Bank.
 
Marten Pieters, Managing Director & CEO, Vodafone India said, “Vodafone ‘m-pesa’ is offering millions of people basic financial services, beyond the reach of traditional banking. We are really proud to announce the strategic partnership with ICICI Bank and launch this first-of-its-kind offering with ICICI to provide mobile payments. This offering has been customized to serve the Indian customer in compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements”.
 
Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director& CEO, ICICI Bank said, “We have now launched ‘m-pesa’, a unique and innovative offering which will allow us to provide basic banking services to millions of customers spread across the country. This will help us reach out to segments that currently do not have access to banking services, towards our objective of achieving greater financial inclusion. We are very happy with this partnership with Vodafone which will bring together the strengths of our respective brands and our complementary capabilities”.