Grab Teams With Kasikornbank For Mobile Wallet; Erste Bank Updates MobilePay App

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes a tie-up between Grab and Kasikornbank for a mobile wallet in Thailand. In addition, Erste Bank has updated its MobilePay offering in Hungary, and Wallex Technologies has officially rolled out its products in Indonesia.

Grab is teaming up with Thailand-based Kasikornbank (KBank) to roll out a mobile wallet along with other financial services, Yahoo! News reported. With the tie-up, customers will be able to use the mobile wallet to pay for transportation and online purchases. In addition, they will be able to use QR codes to make payments in shops and restaurants. At the same time, KBank has reportedly invested $50 million in Grab. Grab Financial Senior Managing Director Reuben Lai said, “this partnership makes Grab Financial the first mobile payments platform to launch e-money-licensed payments services across ASEAN-6 and underlines the strength of our partnership-based strategy.”

In Hungary, Erste Bank has upgraded its mobile wallet called Erste MobilePay to provide new functionality to its customers, according to reports. With the upgrade, customers will be able to store loyalty cards within the program. At the same time, a Personal Financial Management (PFM) feature enables users to keep tabs on their spending through data visualization. The new release, which is available for iOS and Android smartphones, rolled out on November 5. Erste Bank Deputy CEO László Harmati said, according to the report, “the Erste MobileBank app already has over a hundred thousand users, and in the case of MobilePay, we expect to see a rapid expansion following the overhaul.”

And, in Indonesia, Wallex Technologies has officially rolled out amid licensure from Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Bank Indonesia, e27 reported. The company reportedly received a MAS license for remittances and a money transfer license by Bank Indonesia. It provides cash management products such as a multi-currency wallet, virtual accounts and cross-border payments, among others. Wallex Co-Founder and COO Hiroyuki Kiga said, according to e27, “our official launch in Indonesia marks a key development for our future growth. There are inefficiencies when it comes to making international payments here in Indonesia.”