Dubbed as ‘Straight2Bank Mobile Wallet’, the new service allows clients, including development organizations, insurance firms and FMCG companies to make payments to both banked and unbanked individuals, aid workers, policyholders and farmers using their M-PESA mobile wallet.
The lender said that the new mobile payment aims to trim down the risks and slash cash handling costs, while simplifying and expediting the payment processes of administration and reconciliation.
Safaricom launched a mobile-phone based electronic payments system M-PESA in March 2007, which enables individuals and corporates to exchange cash and electronic money using a network of over 65,000 agent outlets in Kenya.
Straight2Bank Mobile Wallet offers completely end-to-end automated transaction process, which eliminates the need for manual intervention, and offers efficiency, scalability and decreased error rate.
The lender said that the mobile payment service will be particularly useful in Kenya where many people do not have access to the traditional bank services and need to send and receive money in rural parts of the country.
Standard Chartered transaction banking client access global head Gautam Jain said that millions of unbanked individuals, including those living in remote regions without access to banks, are now part of the formal financial framework.
"We believe mobile devices will become the prime modes of financial interaction and transaction in the coming years," Jain added.
