Standard Chartered Bank Promotes Online Shopping for its customers through Avenues

June 20, 2010

After entering into an Agreement with Avenues in May 2010, Standard Chartered Bank has gone live with the direct debit payment facility for online shopping through the Avenues Payment Gateway. This new facility will provide Standard Chartered Bank account holders with easy access to the goods and services of thousands of online merchants who use the Avenues Payment Gateway Services. The best part is that any Standard Chartered Bank account holder can now purchase online products or services ranging from clothes to cinema tickets; jobs portal memberships to matrimonial site memberships; hotel reservations to concert tickets .. or even cricket match tickets and pay for these directly from their Standard Chartered Bank Account without the need for a credit card.

This change assumes significance in the context of RBI's recent announcement that the usage of credit card as a preferred method of payment in India is on the decline and the direct debit has become the most preferred method of payment today. By getting into this arrangement with Avenues, Standard Chartered has achieved multiple objectives. Firstly, it has provided its customers with easy access to the increasingly popular channel of online shopping. This timely move has reinforced the belief amongst its customers that the bank is a forward looking one. Secondly, this move will accelerate the adoption and also increase the usage of its Net Banking facility among its account holders. Every bank is trying to achieve this today. Thirdly, it has opened up for itself a new income stream by offering this facility.

Avenues also benefits from this agreement as Standard Chartered becomes a significant addition to its huge bouquet of payment options which includes India's biggest Direct Debit Engine. At the front end of its powerful payment gateway, Avenues has build some unique SAAS solutions for online businesses: CCAvenue - a plug-and-play eCommerce Solution in a box; ResAvenue - a complete reservation and distribution engine for Hotels; EventAvenue - an online management solution for the Event Industry and lastly, HotelsAvenue, the world's largest resource for Travel Agents. All these solutions bring to the table thousands of online stores, services, cinemas, hotels and events where Standard Chartered customers can shop and pay comfortably.

Standard Chartered Bank has a strong national presence through 82 branches and 210 ATMs spread across India and sizable international operations in more than 70 countries with more than 1,700 branches. This wide spread nature of the bank's operations will deepen the reach of Avenues' associated merchants, hoteliers, event holders and travel affiliates throughout the Indian Sub-continent.

Mr. Vishwas Patel, Founder and CEO, Avenues said, "At Avenues, we aim to provide our merchants, hoteliers, event holders and travel affiliates with the widest possible range of payment options to ensure that their reach is not limited to specific customer segments but across all strata of society. The addition of Standard Chartered Bank to our payment bouquet is a significant step in our on-going journey to achieve that goal."

A Senior Official from Standard Chartered Bank said, "Providing top of the line services that are cutting edge in technology and relevant to our bank customers in a way that adds value to their lives has always been a priority for us. With facilities like these, we deepen our internet banking product offering and empower our customers to do much more than basic banking."

About Standard Chartered Bank:
Standard Chartered Bank was formed in 1969 through the merger of Standard Bank of South Africa and Chartered Bank of India, China and Australia. The bank headquarters are situated in London with operations in more than 70 countries with more than 1,700 branches and 73,000 strong workforce. The India operations of Standard Chartered Bank originated in Kolkata, but the headquarters are now in Mumbai with Kolkata branch as a key associate.

The bank has a wide product portfolio catering to its huge customer base spread across India. Standard Chartered Bank offers sophisticated banking and financial products and is regarded as one of the most prominent and customer friendly banks in India. The bank operates through 82 branches and 210 ATMs spread across India. Further, the bank facilitates its customers with 24X7, 21 card helpline centers and 29 phone banking facilitation centers, across India.

About Avenues:
Avenues runs South Asia's largest payment gateway solution powering thousands of eMerchants with real time, multi-currency, multiple payment options online payment processing services. Avenues has launched 4 industry specific solutions: CCAvenue – a plug-and-play eCommerce Solution in a box; ResAvenue - a complete reservation and distribution engine for Hotels; EventAvenue – an online management solution for the Event Industry and lastly, HotelsAvenue – the world's largest resource for Travel Agents. Each solution is powered by proprietary technology that integrates transaction processing, advanced industry specific shopping cart, multiple payment collection facilities, fraud control, financial reporting and order tracking. All solutions come with the full spectrum of Internet payment options, including:

• All types of Credit Card processing through Multiple Banks and Card Associations
• Debit Card processing
• Direct Debit to bank accounts of 20 Indian Banks, 22 Chinese Banks and 3 Singapore Banks
• Mobile Payment Solutions via SBI and PayMate®
• Cash Card Processing of ITZ Cash®

Real Time Payment Processing
Single Window Interface Management
Extensive Distribution Network
Zero Setup Cost
Seamless GDS and IDS connectivity