India’s ICICI Offers First Contactless Commercial Card

Indian airliner Jet Airways is teaming up to bring SMEs in the nation a commercial card solution, a move reports said will bring India its first contactless business card.

Reports on Thursday (May 12) said ICICI Bank will collaborate with Jet Airways to launch the Jet Airways ICICI Bank Business Advantage Card. The commercial card is geared towards small and medium-sized businesses to help manage spend made by business owners and employees.

It will also work as a corporate travel solution by providing SME users with miles earned for spend and credit card payments. Those miles can be earned for purchases made for corporate travel, dining, office supplies and supplier payments, reports said.

The miles can be earned as JPMiles under the JetPrivilege rewards program.

According to ICICI Bank, the commercial card is powered by the Visa payWave contactless card solution, allowing users to tap the card at payment terminals. The technology can be used in 48 countries, the companies said.

The card is also linked to Visa’s IntelliLink for Small Businesses, an expense management tool aimed at giving business owners greater visibility into corporate spend and cash management.

This isn’t the first time ICICI Bank has forged a partnership to provide financial services for SMEs.

Last year, the bank, which is India’s largest in the private sector, inked a deal with eCommerce behemoth Alibaba to streamline financing to India’s SMEs through the Alibaba platform.

Businesses selling on Alibaba can access working capital straight on the site with loans provided by ICICI Bank. The FI also agreed to provide other corporate treasury services, including banking accounts, letters of credit, forex and cash management tools.