Mobile Banking

A state of technology, a state of mind

In February this year, all banks were advised by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to undertake customer education and awareness programmes in multiple languages through different channels of communication — ATMs, self-service kiosks, Internet banking websites, SMS and emails — in order to popularize the process of mobile banking registration/activation and its usage. This report is an attempt to understand the current mobile-banking scenario in the country and how consumers may make better choices while graduating to mobile banking. Facts and findings from the secondary and the primary research are presented here.

In a speech in late January, SS Mundra, deputy governor, RBI, observed that while there was general euphoria around the adoption of mobile banking and mobile payments, the model had been relatively less successful barring in a few countries where the right environmental factors existed. In the Indian context, an objective analysis would reveal various reasons for the slow adoption. There are technical issues like type of handsets, a variety of operating systems, encryption requirements, inter-operable platforms or the lack of it, absence of standardized communication structures, difficulty in downloading application, time lag in activation, etc.