India’s Axis Bank taps WhatsApp for P2P mobile payments

FINEXTRA: India’s Axis Bank has launched a mobile payments service that lets users send money to each other through WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, email and phone contact lists. Developed with Singapore-based social payments vendor Fastacash, the Ping Pay app enables P2P fund transfers as well as mobile top-up through the National Payments Corporation of India’s Immediate Payments Service (IMPS).

Axis Bank customers can download the app (currently only available for Android handsets but coming to iOS in the next few weeks) and sign up for the service using their registered mobile numbers and link their online banking credentials or payments card.

They can then send up to 50,000 rupees per day to any bank account holder through the hugely popular messaging service WhatsApp as well as Twitter, Facebook and email. Users chooses a social or messaging channel and select the name of the person to whom the money is to be sent, enter the amount and set a ‘ping code’ that is shared separately with the receiver.

When the transaction is confirmed the money is immediately sent and the receiver gets a message via the selected channel. They then have 15 days to move the funds to their account using IMPS.

Vince Tallent, CEO, Fastacash, says: “India is one of the fastest growing social and messaging markets, with most of these services being accessed from mobile devices. The Indian consumer is looking for new and innovative ways to interact with payments and this is evident from the growth in the number of mobile wallet services being made available in India.”