ICICI Bank, in arrangement with Tech Mahindra Limited, announced the launch of a contactless payment service based on the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Christened, ‘Tap n Pay’, this innovative payment service enables anyone (account holder of ICICI Bank or not) to make over-the-counter payments without using cash. It allows users to just tap the NFC enabled tag or mobile phone at the merchant’s point-of-sale device to make payments.
‘Tap n Pay’ is a prepaid account, which can be availed by customers of any bank by simply registering for it and transferring money online from any bank account. ICICI Bank customers can also transfer money to the Tap-n-Pay account through an SMS. To start with, this solution is being offered at large campuses of corporate offices. ICICI Bank and Tech Mahindra have plans to extend this service across the country.
Mr. C P Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra said, “As a technology company, we always endeavor to provide superior user experience to the end customer of our business partners. ICICI Bank is known for its continuous innovation to bring in enhanced customer experience. As such, the synergies between the two partners will bring about a new payments ecosystem, parallel to, and yet in harmony with, the existing payment networks in the country and further the move towards a digital India.”
Once an organization has enrolled for the service, its employee only need to register online with their details to avail the facility and collect the NFC tag from the kiosk set up for this purpose.
The launch of this initiative comes close on the heels of a slew of technology-led innovative services by ICICI Bank. These include the launch of the windows version of iMobile, new apps for Mobile Banking, fully automated 24X7 'Touch Banking' branches, Tab Banking and the country's first contactless debit and credit cards. Recently, the Bank launched 'icicibankpay',