Mumbai: Standard Chartered Bank has announced that an enhanced Mobile Banking Solutions basket with the launch of Cardless Cash Withdrawal & Mobile Commerce.

Pioneering an industry first in the funds transfer and mobile banking space, the bank has launched the facility of Cardless Cash Withdrawal.  The service allows Standard Chartered customers to transfer cash instantaneously to anybody within India, within the Standard Chartered network, irrespective of the fact whether the recipient has a Standard Chartered account or not. 

Availing the ''Cardless Cash Withdrawal" is a two step process. In the first step, the Standard Chartered customer makes a request at a Standard Chartered ATM to transfer desired amount to the recipient's mobile number. The customer will immediately receive an order number on a receipt dispensed at the ATM.

Instantaneously, the recipient's mobile number will receive a SMS with a pin number, which will be required to withdraw the money. The sender will also have to communicate the order number that he has received for the recipient to complete the transaction.

In the second step, the recipient would have to go to a Standard Chartered Bank ATM and having followed the instructions, enter the unique pin number, order number, mobile number and amount. On verification by the Standard Chartered system, the cash is dispensed to the recipient.

However, the recipient would need to complete the withdrawal from the ATM within a 24 hour period from the time the request was placed. The money is debited from the SCB customers (senders) account only when the cash is dispensed.

Talking about the initiative at the media function, Murali M Natrajan, Standard Chartered's regional head for consumer banking, India & Nepal said, ''Cardless cash is yet another innovative industry first product from Standard Chartered Bank.  We believe this facility will transform payments from P2P.'' 

Adding further, he said, ''In the next few years new mechanisms could emerge in India which will take advantage of the potential benefits of combining and integrating ATMs, eKiosk, mobile and the internet.''

Standard Chartered Bank also launched Mobile Commerce for its customers, which is an initiative that will support payment for movie tickets, airline tickets, online Internet shopping, etc.

CDK Sai Narain, Standard Chartered's head for consumer transaction banking and strategic initiatives said, "Mobile as a channel offers a great opportunity for transaction convenience. We have over 300 million mobile connections and its penetration today is cross country and across various segments. We see this channel as a great opportunity and I am happy to say today, we have the entire product basket in this range – push based alerts, pull based query, mobile commerce and India's first 'Cardless Cash Withdrawal''.