Atom Cards, that will enable mobile optical fund transfer, is expected to hit the market by April next year. A product by Atom Technologies, the digital retail arm of Financial Technologies (India) and the MCX Group, the card is currently being piloted with Axis Bank.
The Java-based mobile application enables the user to make payments optically by simply placing the mobile phone in front of a webcam at the merchant’s end, which captures the digital image of the card and the payment transaction takes place within a few seconds. “A digital image of the debit/credit card is stored in the application, which is a 2D bar code containing the encrypted data of the card as well as the user’s payment details,” says Dewang Neralla, director, Atom Technologies. The application is secured with a unique customer ID and pin code provided by the bank. It also supports remote transaction where a merchant feeds in the customer’s user ID or mobile number and makes a payment request through SMS.
“We are targeting the 75 million card holders. Up to 16 credit/debit cards can be stored with Atom Cards,” says Niranjan Gosavi, CMO, Atom Technologies. The firm is expecting to roll in eight banks in the coming three years.