Yes Bank has launched SIMsePAY, which allows any account holder to do money transfers, pay utility bills and other mobile banking services, without the need for smartphones or the Internet.
Going cashless is a challenge if you live in rural India or away from cities. The issues range from lack of data connectivity to lack of power charge to charge power-hungry smart phones. Handset affordability remains another threshold to those going cashless.
The Yes Bank SIMsePAY solution is based on a frugal ‘sim-sleeve’ technology, in association with Taisys Technologies, which holds patent for the same and has implemented the same successfully in other countries including Kenya and China.
For more than 650 Million feature phone users, the technology, is a bridge with which they too can connect with the monetary digitisation revolution in a secure way since the SIM sleeve is also a hardware secure element.
“Even in a metro city if you were to transfer money to the neighbourhood vegetable vendor, chances are he may not accept cashless app-based payment for lack of a smartphone. Sim sleeve disrupts this status quo by providing a transaction application on feature phones. Now feature phones too can initiate transactions as well as can be the merchant POS,” said Abhishek Saxena, Managing Director, Taisys India.
Taisys believes that the immediate market for SimSleeve itself is above ten million users with another ten million added within a year.
“As per its past experience in developing economies, people who use Sim-Sleeve technology, do so with twice as much frequency as compared to that of a smartphone app,” said the company.
The product is being offered by Yes Bank customers in a phased manner. The first phase will involve collaboration with co-operative banks that have a focused presence in rural India.
As for the future plans, Taisys, which has helped the development of SIMsePay out of its Noida office, would continue to invest and grow India operation.
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