ICICI Bank makes ‘InstaBIZ’ interoperable for all merchants

By Leandra Monteiro

ICICI Bank announced that it has made ‘InstaBIZ’ interoperable, making the benefits of its business banking mobile app available to all merchants including customers of other banks. The initiative enables merchants and owners of grocery shops, supermarkets, restaurants, stationery stores and pharmacies and professionals like doctors and lawyers to instantly create digital collection solutions like UPI ID and QR code, and start collecting money from their customers immediately. They can also digitally apply for Point of Sale (POS) device. Further, they can transform their shops into an online store in just 30 minutes and apply for a voice messaging device that confirms the receipt of the payments.

Any merchant, no matter it has a current/savings account with ICICI Bank or not, can avail the solutions by simply downloading the ‘InstaBIZ’ app from Play Store and link their bank account. This initiative features a completely online and instant Know Your Customer (KYC) process. Merchants do not need to visit any branch nor upload any document. The initiative leverages upon advanced APIs of the Bank that instantly and digitally validate PAN/ Aadhaar number which is required for verification of KYC.

Speaking on the initiative, Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank said, “We at ICICI Bank always believe that the self-employed and the MSME segment forms the backbone of the Indian economy. A large part of this segment consists of retail merchants. It is our endeavour to support merchants—around two crore across the country– by offering them solutions that make their business easy. With this aim, we were the first to introduce ‘InstaBIZ’, a mobile banking app for businesses, two-and-a-half years ago.

We believe that the benefits of our products and services should not be restricted only to our customers; those who bank with others should also avail them. In line with this philosophy of ‘open architecture’ of our digital banking platforms, we made ‘iMobilePay’, our mobile app for personal banking, available to any individual last year. It was the first of its kind initiative in the industry. Similarly, we are now delighted to extend the ease, speed and safety of ‘InstaBIZ’ to merchants having accounts with any bank in the country, another industry-first initiative. Now, any merchant can instantly avail digital collection services from ‘InstaBIZ’ and immediately start collecting money from their customers. Merchants also get the advantage to get their KYC process done in a fully digital and paperless manner without visiting a branch of the Bank. We believe that this new and unique digital offering resonates with merchants across the country, as it frees up their bandwidth to a large extent, which they can devote to grow their main business.”