Mahindra Comviva’s Mobiquity to enable financial services for payments banks in India

New Delhi: Mahindra Comviva, a subsidiary of Tech Mahindra and a provider of mobility and financial solutions, has announced that its Mobiquity solution is ready to enable payments bank and small finance bank licensees to launch their financial services in India.

Mahindra Comviva’s Mobiquity is the company's mobile financial product that  powers three of the top 10 deployments, globally. It has a 25 per cent share in the operator-led mobile money market and processes 200 million transactions every month worth $4 billion.

According to the company, their focus will be to enable financial services for three broad three segments of the Indian population - unbanked, under-banked and millionaire as the likely target audience.

Mobiquity, which is already enabling mobile financial services for over 65 banks and mobile operators, in over 45 countries, will now help the new licensees in establishing a distribution network and partner ecosystem. It will provide a technological support system to deliver a host of mobile financial services, ranging from remittance and payments to savings and insurance, in the Indian market.

RBI has ushered India into the next generation of banking with payments bank licenses being awarded to 11 non-banking entities. The new licensees include established mobile operators, technology firms and financial service companies. Payments banks are expected to drive an increasing convergence between technology and financial services by facilitating electronic payments in the future.

They can also leverage mobility to overcome infrastructure and adoption challenges faced by conventional banks paving way for financial inclusion. Mobile access will make branch-less banking and remote payments possible, especially for the semi-urban and rural customer, and bring 47 per cent of the unbanked and under-banked adult population into the formal banking channel.

“Payments and small finance banks will complement the core banking sector by enabling an ecosystem that improves last-mile connectivity. It will be based on a self-service model, ushering a digital payments revolution, which will help in accelerating India’s journey towards a cashless society. Also, for ensuring a greater user experience, payments banks will need to focus on contextual and locational awareness in order to guide customers through their entire buying journey,” said Srinivas Nidugondi, Senior VP and Head of Mobile Financial Solutions, Mahindra Comviva.

“Mobility will be the key lever in the fast evolving Indian banking landscape. Acknowledging this change, Mahindra Comviva has enhanced its leading mobile financial solution mobiquity to meet the needs of the payments and small finance banks in India,” elaborated Srinivas Nidugondi.

Mobiquity is designed to integrate with an ecosystem of utility companies, merchants, money transfer operators and third-party payment systems, creating a converged ecosystem, powered by interoperability.

According to the company, Mobiquity will allow customer acquisitions by accommodating high volume-low value transactions. The solution’s architecture will enable a distribution network of multiple hierarchies based on business requirements and market demand. In addition to on-premise deployment, the solution can be hosted on a central server, lowering capital expenditure. The solution has integrated analytics and reporting tools for aligning to market needs.

Commenting on the development, Vamsi Madhav, Vice President, Mobile Financial Solutions at Mahindra Comviva, said, “Our award winning and widely deployed Mobiquity solution shares RBI’s vision of improving financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payment and remittance services to the underserved segments such as the migrant labour workforce, low income households, small businesses, and other entities in the unorganized sector. We aim to bring benefits to both consumers and financial service providers by enabling real-time, low-cost financial transactions, in a secured, technology-driven environment.”

“Mobiquity will empower payments and small finance banks to be agile to the markets without compromising on security. Apart from delivering convenience to their customers, the solution will help the licensees in new customer acquisitions, launch innovative mobile financial services rapidly, create long-term loyalty and seize new revenue opportunities to expand their market reach,” added Madhav.