State Bank of India (SBI), the nation’s largest lender is all set to become the first bank to offer wallet services for feature phone users, as per a report in a national business newspaper. According to the Economic Times, SBI is going to launch mobile wallet called “Batua” next month and the service will be available to existing as well as non-SBI customers. The application will be available only on Java-enabled mobile phones.
“We want to cater to both India and Bharat and this new initiative is part of our efforts to cater to Bharat. After its launch, the customers can log into sbi.co.in, download Batua on their desktop and load the app on their phone.” an SBI official said, as quoted by ET.
The bank has been ramping up its efforts to become the banker to Digital India. SBI has a customer base of 28.6 crores, of which 2.3 crores are net banking customers and 1.2 crores are mobile banking customers. It may be recalled that SBI, in August this year, had launched a mobile wallet app, SBI Buddy for smartphone users, in collaboration with Accenture and Mastercard, which the service is available to existing as well as non-SBI customers.
SBI Buddy customers can send money to new and registered customers, book movies, flights, hotels as well as use the mobile wallet for shopping. It also has features like reminders to settle dues, recharge and pay bills instantly. Customers using Batua will only be able to load, pay and receive money.
“We have a marketplace in Buddy. Unless the marketplace enables the Batua application to access these sites customers will be unable to enjoy the shopping experience on this app,” the banker said.
The bank is also planning to launch another version of Batua for very basic phones which does not offer internet access and does not entail downloading any app. While, this project is in the pilot stage, SBI plans to use the instant messaging service to allow customers to pay and receive money. The bank plans to launch this next year.
Several of India’s private banks have launched mobile payment solutions for smartphone users. In June, HDFC Bank had launched PayZapp, a oneclick payment and purchase solution. It has also launched Chillr, a thirdparty app platform that enables users to transfer money to anybody in their phone book contacts. ICICI Bank has launched ‘Pockets’, a wallet model aimed to take on industry rivals Paytm and MobiKwik. Axis Bank also recently rolled out a full-fledged mobile app ‘Lime’ that enables shopping, making payments and banking under one window.