Brief

Mobile payments from Reliance and HDFC Bank

L to R: Mahesh Prasad, President, Applications, Solutions and Content Group, Reliance Communications along with Rahul Bhagat, Country Head - Retail Liabilities, Marketing & Direct Banking Channels, HDFC Bank at the launch of the Reliance mPay credit card with HDFC Bank

Reliance Communications (RCom) and HDFC Bank have come together to offer Reliance mPay credit card with HDFC Bank. This is India’s first virtual credit card to Reliance Mobile users across India, wherein the Reliance Mobile is the credit card and mobile number is the credit card number.

Announcing the launch of Reliance mPay, Rahul Bhagat, Country Head - Retail Liabilities, Marketing and Direct Banking Channels, HDFC Bank, announced the launch of India’s first Virtual Credit Card on Reliance Mobile phone. “An HDFC Bank customer can now shop using his Reliance Mobile and make payment without disclosing the details of his credit card,” he said.

The Reliance mPay credit card with HDFC Bank is virtual in nature and no physical plastic will be issued. The service will be available to Reliance Mobile users who are using HDFC Bank credit cards. The user can use their Reliance mPay credit card with HDFC Bank at any merchant establishments that accept payment via Reliance mPay.

The HDFC Bank will authenticate all the information with RCom, which will be used to initiate and authorize all the payments using the customer’s mobile handset. Thus, there is no card number, Card Verification Value (CVV) or expiry date, which the customer has to enter with Reliance mPay service.

Reliance mPay services will offer Reliance Mobile post paid bill payment, pre-paid top-up, and payment of Reliance Energy monthly electricity bills and will be extended to allow the customer to book movie tickets, travel tickets, merchant payments at shops, restaurants, shopping on the Internet, amongst other services.

Speaking on the occasion, Mahesh Prasad, President, Applications, Solutions and Content Group, Reliance Communications, said, “This is another step towards making money transfer, mobile commerce a reality in India.”

There is no financial risk to the customer in case of loss of mobile phone as the use of the Reliance mPay is PIN protected. To use the service and make any payment, the customer will have to use the PIN (issued to the customer at the time of issue of this virtual credit card). As all the transactions are initiated using the mobile number (to which the Reliance mPay service is issued), there is no risk of card skimming, card compromise on the Internet etc thereby ensuring no misuse on the Internet.