Mobile Banking

Mobile banking (also known as M-Banking, mbanking, SMS Banking etc.) is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments etc. via a mobile device such as a mobile phone. Mobile banking today (2007) is most often performed via SMS or the Mobile Internet but can also use special programs called clients downloaded to mobile device.
Over the last few years, the mobile and wireless market has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world and it is still growing at a rapid pace. According to the GSM Association and Ovum, the number of mobile subscribers exceeded 2 billion in September 2005, and now it is close to 4.6 billion
The mobile payment industry will experience steady growth, as the number of mobile payment users worldwide will total 73.4 million in 2009, up 70.4 percent from 2008 when there were 43.1 million users, according to Gartner, Inc.
Gartner predicts that the number of mobile payment users will reach more than 190 million in 2012, representing more than 3 percent of total mobile users worldwide and attaining a level at which it will be considered "mainstream." Gartner defines a mobile payment as paying for a product or service using mobile technology such as a short message service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and NFC( near-field communication).
With mobile technology, banks can offer services to their customers such as doing funds transfer while travelling, receiving online updates of stock price or even performing stock trading while being stuck in traffic. Smartphones and 3G connectivity provide some capabilities that older text message-only phones do not.
According to a study by financial consultancy Celent, 35% of online banking households will be using mobile banking by 2010, up from less than 1% today. Upwards of 70% of bank center call volume is projected to come from mobile phones. Mobile banking will eventually allow users to make payments at the physical point of sale. "Mobile contactless payments” will make up 10% of the contactless market by 2010.
Many believe that mobile users have just started to fully utilize the data capabilities in their mobile phones. In Asian countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines, where mobile infrastructure is comparatively better than the fixed-line infrastructure, and in European countries, where mobile phone penetration is very high (at least 80% of consumers use a mobile phone), mobile banking is likely to appeal even more. The banking agent is an important part of the mobile banking business model since customer care, service quality, and cash management will depend on them.
Mobile banking in India: Thirty-two banks have been given approval to provide mobile banking services in India. Of this, 21 banks have started providing these services.

RBI guidelines: For the present, banks are permitted to offer this facility to their customers subject to a daily cap of Rs. 5000/- per customer for funds transfer and Rs.10,000/- per customer for transactions involving purchase of goods/services. Now it has been increased to 50000/-
The services shall be restricted only to customers of banks and/or holders of debit/credit cards.Only banks who have implemented core banking solutions would be permitted to provide mobile banking services.

In future, interoperability between mobile banking service providers and banks and development of a host of message formats. To ensure inter-operability between banks, and between their mobile banking service providers, banks shall adopt the message formats like ISO 8583, with suitable modification to address specific needs.
Obopay India has partnered with Tagit, provider of mobile interactive platform, to create a common mobile banking infrastructure for banks, telecom companies and other financial institutions.

ICICI bank “We have witnessed an increasing trend of customers registering for mobile banking,” a spokesperson from ICICI Bank told Business Line. The bank, which has been offering various mobile banking options to its customers since 2003, now has eight million customers registered for mobile banking services.

Mobile Banking Services

Account Information Mini-statements and checking of account history, Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds, Monitoring of term deposits, Access to loan statements, Access to card statements, Mutual funds / equity statements Insurance policy management.
Payments, Deposits, Withdrawals, and Transfers Domestic and international fund transfers, Micro-payment handling, Mobile recharging, Commercial payment processing, Bill payment processing, Peer to Peer payments.
Investments Portfolio management services, Real-time stock quotes, Personalized alerts and notifications on security prices, mobile banking
Support Status of requests for credit, including mortgage approval, and insurance coverage, Check (cheque) book and card requests, Exchange of data messages and email, including complaint submission and tracking, ATM Location