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According to industry sources, India has a 40% unbanked population that have no access to alternative method of financial services. Around $600 million worth of cash transfers occur in India in a year. Mobile is probably the safest and most cost efficient way of dealing with payments. A company that wants to set up a mobile payment business has to follow the same procedures with Reserve Bank of India that financial institutions like banks, NBFC’s and others have to go through.
We spoke with Dinesh Verma, Head- Product Management, Global Transaction Banking, Nucleus Software to know more about how mobile is being leveraged by banks as a strategic channel.
The ability to use a mobile phone as a payment channel is of clear value in settings where the banking structure is undeveloped. When it comes to channel accessibility, the impact of mobility on individual consumers and commercial customers can’t be negated.
Mobility enables anytime anywhere banking
An increasingly mobile customer with very short attention spans looks for instant gratification through a new level of customer experience. Mobile has created a new channel through which banks can provide the convenience of anytime, anywhere banking to their customers.
The main drive for mobile adoption in corporate customers was on the back of e-mail capability. But today the needs are much more than simple needs like e-mails but range from creating/authorizing payments, checking account balances, tracking outstanding receivables and getting the pulse of trapped cash so that decisions can be made on the go.
Banks are no longer looking at mobility as just another channel for banking services. With a sharp rise in smart phones and its increasing capability, mobility has already become a strategic channel for banking services.
Mobility is set to take virtual banking to the next level
Mobility is set to take virtual banking to the next level with more customers using mobility for banking services and demanding more from mobility banking. Over past 3-5 years, mobility applications are getting transformed from tactical applications to enterprise applications. Banks are creating separate budgets for mobility banking. Clearly, mobility is here to stay. Internet banking was a major revolution in banking services accessibility.
Mobile banking to surpass desktop Internet banking
We expect mobile banking to become the next big revolution surpassing desktop internet banking in the next 2-3 years. Customer centricity will drive the banking services on mobile. Mobility applications will expand from savings account access to other types of accounts like loan.
More and more banking functions like customer on-boarding, field investigation, credit approval, collection and debt management, etc. will come through mobility. Tablet banking has a huge potential for usage in customer service function by bank branch staff.
Mobility is a medium for financial inclusion for policy makers
Policy makers across the countries will use mobility is a medium for financial inclusion. Banks are bound to expand their services on the mobile platform for internal and external customers.
Today, while most of the banks offer some of the depository account services on mobile, loan services on this platform are hardly offered by any. All round customer service on mobile phones is the future. Banks are experimenting new technologies like NFC for payments, cloud etc.
Analytics to gallop chunk of enterprise mobility apps
Analytics is going to take significant share of enterprise mobility applications. We can see a greater interoperability amongst variety of mobility platforms. Mobility will continue to remain amongst the top banking trends with more and more banks embracing shift from tactical mobility applications to strategic mobility applications.
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