Bank of Baroda and bob World have joined hands with the National Payments Corporations of India (NPCI) to launch bob World Wave, a wearable line of products for payments, integrated with a complete health ecosystem. Its core features include:
The bob World Wave wearable device will allow customers to monitor their Sp02, body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure, the bank said in a press statement.
With bob World Wave, the bank is providing an exclusive 3-months free wellness package along with a personal health coach, doctor tele-consultation and interactive video coaching, it said.
The bank said the device will provide contactless payments of up to Rs.5000 in all NFC-enabled PoS devices.
Customers can do contactless payment above Rs. 5000 using a PIN, it said.
It said the bank will provide a dummy plastic card (with the same card number printed as that of the wearable device along with expiry date and CVV) to enable customers to do e-commerce transactions at ease.
While speaking about the launch of the new product, Ajay K Khurana, Executive Director at Bank of Baroda said, “Wearable technology is witnessing a tremendous interest and absorption globally as people are increasingly adopting more convenient and cashless digital transactions.”
“This is an innovative solution, intended to perfectly deliver preventive health actions as well as easier payment transactions. We are delighted to partner with NPCI to offer a state-of-the-art wearable payment solution to our customers by leveraging the existing NFC based technology,” he added.
Speaking at the launch, Akhil Handa, chief digital officer at Bank of Baroda said, “At Bank of Baroda, it is our endeavour to accelerate digital technology and implement innovation to meet the demands of the evolving modern age customers.”
“Bank’s on-the-go wearable payment solution, bob World Wave is designed to ensure convenient and seamless digital payments by our customers. It is anticipated that 10% of the small ticket payments will be made via wearable devices in the next two years,” he added.
Nalin Bansal, chief of corporate and Fintech relationships and key initiatives, NPCI said, “We are happy to partner with Bank of Baroda to launch OnTheGo smart payment wearables on the robust RuPay network. This will empower customers to carry out their day-to-day transactions securely and seamlessly.”
“With the rapid increase of acceptance infrastructure, the demand for contactless payment mechanisms is on a steady rise. The overall consumer sentiment is in favour of wearables’ permanence in the payments industry.”
“This first-of-its-kind offering is enabled with cutting edge innovation and is set to redefine the way contactless transactions will be made in the future,” Bansal further said.