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Eko, a mobile-based fintech company, has launched its semi-closed pre-paid wallet service in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and RBL Bank (formerly The Ratnakar Bank Ltd).
“Eko Wallet will simplify payment options among the online buyers and will enable deposits through mobile phones for the low and moderate-income customers across rural and urban geographies. Eko processes over Rs 200 crore a month in domestic money remittances, and aims to grow this business to Rs 1,000 crore a month by March 2016 with the help of the wallet,” Eko said in a statement.
Through Eko Wallet, citizens will be able to send deposits or remittances to any bank account in real time using Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) extended by NPCI.
Eko Wallet will also offer utility bill payments, retail merchant payments, 1-click mobile payments and other emerging mobile money capabilities to neo economically active customers via its apps and point-of-sale presence.
Eko claims to be the first company that had started providing real-time domestic money transfer service to citizens in 2009 in partnership with banks. However, the facility was available only to the banks’ customers.
Through the PPI (pre-paid instrument) licence and partnership with NPCI, Eko’s own customers will also be able to send real-time remittances to any bank account, thereby enabling Eko to market customer-facing innovations with agility and scale the service more rapidly.
Abhishek Sinha, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Eko India Financial Services, said, "…Eko will be very quickly moving to integrate with other interfaces being extended by NPCI, including AEPS, APBS, BBPS, RuPay, and UPI, to leverage the payments infrastructure to its fullest…With our unique technology platform and API stack that we are keen to extend to other companies, we are exploring multiple synergies with our existing partner banks, other banks and other key players in the payments landscape.”
A P Hota, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NPCI, said “With the unique feature of instant confirmation and its availability on weekends and holidays, IMPS became consumers’ first choice for doing financial transactions across the country. With the introduction of IMPS for Eko Wallets, Eko has broadened the base for wallet usage and will increase business by leveraging IMPS.”
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