MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Oxigen of India Unveils OxiCash Money Transfer Service

Oxigen, an India-based payment solutions provider, has announced a new mobile money transfer service called OxiCash, which is intended to provide poor people with a “mobile wallet” for receiving funds and transferring money between bank accounts. This reportedly is the first such product to be approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central banking authority. The OxiCash money transfer service will be available both online and through mobile phones. “Mobile wallets” can be created through a short message service (SMS, also known as text messaging) exchange with OxiCash and funds can be deposited and withdrawn at approximately 100,000 Oxigen retail sites. The service can be accessed from all mobile phones via SMS, and users of Android smart phones can also use a customized OxiCash app.

Financial information on Oxigen is not publicly available.

By Makai McClintock, Research Associate

About Oxigen
Oxigen, founded in India in 2004, is a bill-payment, ticketing and prepaid-recharge services company. Oxigen provides recharge services for mobile phones and televisions, conference calling services, calling cards, telecommunications and utility bill payment services, travel ticketing, entertainment recharge, hotel bookings, mobile media and digital entertainment, mainly through point of sale terminals, computers, handsets and text messages (SMS). No official financial information on Oxigen is available.

About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Established in 1935, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) undertakes consolidated supervision of the financial sector comprising commercial banks, financial institutions and non-banking finance companies (NFBCs). The current focus of RBI is to supervise financial institutions, consolidate accounting standards, resolve legal issues in cases of banking fraud, monitor non-performing assets and supervise the rating model for the banking sector. In 1979, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was formed at the behest of RBI to provide regulatory oversight to regional rural banks (RRBs) and to promote the development of agricultural lenders: tasks that had been the responsibility of RBI. While non-banking financial companies such as for-profit microfinance institutions operate under RBI regulations, the responsibility for inspecting agricultural lenders, RRBs, state cooperative banks, district central cooperative banks and state cooperative agricultural and rural development banks was transferred to NABARD. RBI maintains these responsibilities for for-profit MFIs. Although RBI was originally the parent organization of NABARD and until October 2010 held a 72.5 percent stake in the outfit, RBI owns a one-percent stake in NABARD as of 2011.

Sources and Additional Resources

MobilePaymentsToday Article, “OxiCash Money Transfer Launches as India’s 1st RBI-Approved Mobile Wallet for Unbanked,” http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/212817/OxiCash-Money-Transfer-launches-as-India-s-1st-RBI-approved-mobile-wallet-for-unbanked

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Releases Regulations Governing New Bank Licenses,” March 11, 2013.
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-reserve-bank-of-india-rbi-releases-regulations-governing-new-bank-licenses/

MicroCapital: “MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Map of Microfinance Distribution in India” by Amulya Krishna Champatiray, Parul Agarwal and Santadarshan Sadhu; published by the Centre for Micro Finance (CMF),” January 29, 2013.
https://www.microcapital.org/microfinance-paper-wrap-up-map-of-microfinance-distribution-in-india-by-amulya-krishna-champatiray-parul-agarwal-and-santadarshan-sadhu-published-by-the-centre-for-micro-finance/

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: First Phase of India’s 2011 Census: 40% of Households Do Not Have Access to Banking Services, 5% of Villages Have Banks,” April 9, 2012.
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-first-phase-of-indias-2011-census-40-of-households-do-not-have-access-to-banking-services-5-of-villages-have-banks/

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Task Force Recommends Micro-ATMs to Improve Financial Inclusion,” March 19, 2012.
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-unique-identification-authority-of-india-uidai-task-force-recommends-micro-atms-to-improve-financial-inclusion/

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Reserve Bank of India to Issue Guidelines For Interoperability Among Business Correspondents ‘Shortly,” February 14, 2012.
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-reserve-bank-of-india-to-issue-guidelines-for-interoperability-among-business-correspondents-shortly/

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Finance Ministry Clears Draft Microfinance Bill, Considers Engaging Post Office Banks to Promote Financial Inclusion,” February 8, 2012.
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-indian-finance-ministry-clears-draft-microfinance-bill-considers-engaging-post-office-banks-to-promote-financial-inclusion/

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Government Publishes Draft of Microfinance Institutions Bill, Would Make Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Sole Regulator, Establish Microfinance Development Council, Microfinance Development Fund,” August 15, 2011.
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-indian-government-publishes-draft-of-microfinance-institutions-bill-would-make-reserve-bank-of-india-rbi-sole-regulator-establish-microfinance-development-council-microfinance/

MicroCapital: “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: State Bank of India Teams Up with Oxigen Pvt Ltd and Sahyog Microfinance Foundation to Offer Kiosk-based Banking Model, ” August 5, 2010. https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-state-bank-of-india-teams-up-with-oxigen-pvt-ltd-and-sahyog-microfinance-foundation-to-offer-kiosk-based-banking-model-2/

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