In the very near future, a person will not have to carry his plastic money for the payment purposes. Since the mobile number of the user will act as his or her credit card number, there might not be any requirement of carrying the credit cards all the time. In the recent times, Reserve Bank of India informed that it was in the process of formulating the guidelines for a payment system using mobile devices. Reserve Bank of India is discussing with both public and private sector Banks, service providers and industry bodies to develop the payment system for the mobile devices. The RBI had also stated that draft guidelines would be placed on its official website by the 15th of June, 2008.
In the countries like India, the usage of mobile is growing rapidly. There are about 250 million mobile phone connections in the country, whereas the credit card holders are far lower in comparison to number of mobile phone connections. Therefore, using the mobile phones for making payments may take some more time in getting implemented.
The RBI said in its policy statement said that the quick elaboration of this mode of payment and transactions have thrown up a new delivery channel for banks. This channel will certainly assist small value payments to merchants, utility service providers. In addition, the speed with which the money will get transferred at a low cost will make this process really useful.
Credit cardmarket is going to witness some more innovative changes in the present year. The outcome product of the joint venture between Life Insurance Corporation of India and GE Money is likely to touch the market by the end of this year.
In the first year of its launch, the company will provide this card to the LIC customers and policy holders only. This venture is an outcome of very solid research works. It includes a 30 per cent stake for GE Money, while LIC Housing Finance Company, LIC Mutual Fund and Corporation Bank each have a 5 per cent stake each in the venture. The Life Insurance Corporation will have 40 percent of stake in the company. LIC has invested around Rupees 150 crore in this plan. LIC has yet not taken any decision about the remaining 15 per cent stake of the total investments. In another development, ABN AMRO and MakeMyTrip.com have launched a distinctive co-branded credit card. The card is named as the 'Go Card'. This card offers special reward benefits and good range of travel-related promotional packages to its users.
