India's HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank and UTI Bank have gone live with technology from electronic payments vendor Euronet Worldwide to enable pre-paid customers to purchase mobile phone top-ups at ATMs.
Euronet says the Direct Top-up service will enable subscribers of Hutchison Max Telecom, which operates under the Orange brand in India, to purchase airtime.
The service will also soon be available at the State Bank of India's cash machines. In total the four banks combined have more 35% of the ATMs in the country.
Direct Top-up allows customers to either register for mobile recharge services and purchase airtime at ATMs or use SMS text message commands to top-up phones. Customers' accounts are debited for the purchase amount.
These transactions will be processed at Euronet's recently launched data centre in Mumbai, India. Daniel Henry, Euronet president and COO, says the vendor is now directly connected to banks that have more than 95 million customer accounts in India, providing significant growth potential.
He adds that the recharge services will also enable banks to tap into the rapidly growing consumer base of mobile phone users.