Yes Bank partners Tonetag to integrate sound-based payments in its wallet

Yes Bank has tied up with ToneTag, a proximity communication company, to integrate and deploy ToneTag sound based contactless payments on their mobile wallet Yes Pay.

The technology that enables sound-based communication will allow Yes Pay wallet users to make ‘cardless’ payments at merchant outlets through their mobile phones.

The live demonstration of Yes Pay app, Yes Bank’s digital wallet, using ToneTag Sound wave technology was showcased at Nasscom Product Conclave 2016 in Bengalore.

Ritesh Pai, Senior President & Country Head– Digital Banking at Yes Bank, said – “Contactless payments based on sound tones is something we haven’t seen before and is a very interesting concept brought forth by ToneTag. As IoT sees greater investment, consumers will become increasingly reliant on contactless payments, ToneTag is our bet at making Yes Pay Wallet future-ready. We are bullish about our alliance with them as we continue to strive in making payments seamless for end users.”

Any smartphone user can download the wallet app and register ToneTag. The Software Development Kit (SDK) only requires a speaker and a microphone to work. It can utilize the inbuilt mic or speaker of any device to enable data transfer through soundwaves and hence it supports most existing devices such as PCs, POS, EDC devices and mobile phones including feature phones and wearables.

Since the ToneTag patented Software Development Kit (SDK) supports any hardware, the only prerequisite is the integration of the ToneTag SDK at both merchant (POS or Mobile devices) and customer interaction points (Mobile apps). The SDK contains features such as patented noise filters, three levels of encryption, tokenization, white box cryptography and multifactor authentication to ensure security and reliability.

“With ToneTag, Yes Pay Wallet users can enjoy an NFC-like payments experience without the associated hardware dependencies, which is a significant improvement over current technologies such as QR codes that are being used in the market for in-store payments,” said Kumar Abhishek, CEO, ToneTag.

Payments through ToneTag allow businesses to streamline their checkout processes by providing a seamless transaction experience for both the customers and the retailers.