Nokia brings Nokia Money to India

The Finish mobile giant has launched its Nokia Money service. The service saw pan-India launch and can be used on any mobile.  The Nokia Money platform allows you to do number of financial transactions such as payments for utility bills, tickets, top-ups and insurance premiums that can be conducted on the mobile phone itself.

You can register for the Nokia Mobile by registering with a local Nokia outlet and depositing cash there. From there your cash will be converted in to digital cash and you can avail the service through SMS. 

“There is a need for alternative financial payment instruments in India and the mobile handset offers a perfect mass platform to deliver these. Transaction costs on mobile devices are significantly lower,” said Mr. Gary Singh, General Manager, Mobile Payment Services.

Nokia Money already existed in India with Union Bank of India and Yes Bank but that requires users to go through the paper formalities of KYC. But this is going to be an easy to catch train because unlike other mobile payment services Nokia Money is closed wallet.

Therefore it will not require any documentation as it is free from Know Your Cash (KYC) norms of RBI. The RBI also notifies Nokia Money as independent of any mobile operator or individual banking network.

It should be noted that Nokia was among the first ones to work on mobile payment project in Chandigarh, Nashik and Pune since 2010. 

 It is not clear whether this service can be used on handsets manufactured by other manufacturers or not. Also it is not clear from when NFC users can avail this physical-virtual wallet. PayMate an Indian mobile payment gateway is working with Nokia to enable NFC for mobile payment services.