Yes Bank teams with Ultracash Technologies for sound-based payments
India-based Yes Bank is partnering with Ultracash Technologies to launch payments processing through sound waves.
The bank, the fifth largest in the Indian private sector, says the collaboration will let Ultracash issue Yes Bank-sponsored mobile wallets and use its Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) payments platform for the processing of instant proximity transactions.
Ritesh Pai, senior president and country head – digital banking, Yes Bank, says both companies are targeting the merchant payments market, which he puts at around 25 million “small scale retailers”.
Ultracash’s technology works by transferring payment data from one device to the other using ultra-high frequency sound waves.
Called ‘Tap and Pay’, it works on “all devices and doesn’t need any special hardware to make the payment and there is no need [for] special NFC chips”.
The bank adds that Ultracash’s sound wave technology means mobile payments can be done without the need for the internet.
Ultracash, which was launched in Bangalore in August 2015, says it has more than 60,000 active app users.
This latest development is not unique to India, Yes Bank and Ultracash.
In 2013, Alipay launched a similar system on the Beijing subway. While last year, Soundpays, a Toronto-based mobile payments start-up, also discussed its plans for a “payments innovation” through sound.
