Mobile banking in Urban India – most popular services Thursday, May 14 2009

Mobile banking plays a significant role in mCommerce.  It is simple to use and provides convenient ways to perform financial transactions. Therefore, it has become very popular among the mobile users today.

Let us take a look at some real statistics. By observing and analyzing data gathered in April 2009 for Feb/March mobile banking urban Indian customers, it is found that checking account balance is the most frequently cited reason for using mobile banking. 40 million Urban Indians used their mobile phones to check their bank account balances followed by viewing last three transactions. Taking into considerations many banks providing mobile banking services, ICICI bank continues to maintain its leadership extending in mobile space, 42% of all mobile banking users bank with ICICI, followed by HDFC (25.3%).

Most popular services in mobile banking

Another survey was conducted based on  mobile users with various income groups in urban India. After analyzing the data, it is noticed mobile banking is most used by subscribers falling in Rs. 1 Lakh to Rs. 2.99 Lakhs income bracket (36.6%) followed by less than Rs 1 Lakh income bracket (18%). Mobile users with more than 7.5lakhs of income used this service less (11.7%). Therefore it is observed, mobile banking is more popular among low income group of mobile users than higher income group of mobile users.

How often do you use mobile banking and what do you think are the benefits? Do share your experience.

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Mobile Banking : An integral part of mCommerce Monday, May 11 2009

Mobile banking, commonly known as mbanking is the ability to check  credit balances, make account transactions, make payments etc. via mobile phones. In simple terms, it provides banking and financial services to customers on the fly. Started in 2007, has become very popular today due to higher internet speed,  increase in security, new banking and financial services available.

Service discovery and delivery

Services are accessible in various forms to mobile users (consumers):

• SMS – By sending text message (preserved keyword) to pre-defined shortcode
• WAP – Via mobile Internet by accessing dedicated WAP portals (pre-requisite: GPRS connectivity required and setting to be enabled on mobile phones)
• Application – mbanking application to be installed on the handset (mbanking client to be download on compatible mobile phones).

Benefits

There are several people who benefit from this service. Some of them are:

1. Banks – Most bank offers mBanking facility to all its Bank, Credit Card, Demat and Loan customers hence increasing customer satisfaction
2. End users – Easy to use and on the fly transactions , makes it convenient for use
3. Operators – By Charging for the SMS service, GPRS connectivity
4. Service providers – Increase source of revenues by offering new services
5. Investment Brokers – Attract more buyer with this simple to use service

Mobile Banking Services

Mobile banking can offer numerous services (only main ones listed) such as:

• Check account information – balance , debits, credits check
• Mini-statements – recent transactions, account history
• Set Alerts – on account activities or passing of set thresholds on credit/debit cards, salary credit,
• Play orders – new cheque books
• Cheque Status – check the status, stop cheques
• Blocking of lost/stolen credit/debit cards
• Bill information – View your recent bills
• Change primary account – New acct number
• Locate – ATMs, branch locations, drop boxes based on PIN/ZIP code
• Credit card check – balance enquiry, reward points, last payment, payment due date
• Loans – access to statements, Amortisation Schedule, Income Tax Certificate provisional, Income Tax Certificate Final, Reset Letter, Reschedulement Letter, Loan Agreement copy, welcome letter, interest certificate
• Service request – status of service request raised
• Mutual funds / equity statements
• Insurance policy management
• Domestic and international fund transfers
• Commercial payment processing
• Bill payment processing  – Phone bills, utility bills
• Peer to Peer payments
• Investments – Portfolio management services, real-time stock quotes , personalized alerts and notifications on security prices

Due to  new services being added frequently, user friendly platform, increased security, higher data transfer rate, increase in subsciber base, people attracted to high end phones and new services, mobile VAS value chain members expect a potential growth in mCommerce specially, mBanking.

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