An Innocuous Accessory
What began as an experiment for on-the-go communication has evolved into the most widespread personal technology in human history.
Today Mobile phones have become the primary, and often only, gateway to the Internet for millions worldwide. Affordable smartphones, coupled with offline-first applications, are transforming access to essential services such as education, banking, telemedicine, and civic engagement, simultaneously driving unprecedented digital inclusion.
People, mostly those born post 2000, are used-to getting everything at their fingertips, controlling & living their lives at their own pace, from their own place. Quickly & quietly the humble Mobile device has gone on from being an accessory to an indispensable part of everyday life.
Keeping pace with the paradigm shift in the way of living, Banking has also taken quick steps forward. Banking has piggy-backed on the 24/7 culture, powered by internet & made itself accessible to the general populace, more importantly access at their own convenience.
India Story
Over the last decade or so, with affordable data plans coupled with proliferation of Smart-Phone usage resulted in broader Internet access to a large section of the society in India. Today, empowered by 4G & 5G technology, the internet subscriber base of the country stands at around
954.4 million, with 556.05 million in urban areas and 398.35 million in rural areas. As per a recent TRAI report, the average monthly data consumption of a user in India has reached up-to 20.27GB as of March 2024, up from just 0.27GB in 2014-15. Smartphones nowadays serve as the primary gateway to the digital world, facilitating everything from social media to online shopping & even Banking is not left far behind.
The Digital Banking journey in India from its inception to the current state has been a testament to rapid technological advancements & ever-changing customer expectations. It all started off as simple notifications through SMS & e-mail alerts. Then came Internet Banking, for both the Retail & Corporate customer which slowly but surely became an off the shelf offering from both Private sector & PSU Banks in India. With the advent of smartphones and their widespread usage adoption, almost every Bank has their mobile applications.
Which was a steady journey of transformation from physical to digital space, was suddenly accelerated manifold during and post the Pandemic crisis. Financial Institutions across the world and also in India begun to deploy new digital technologies to an ever-increasing degree towards reaching-out to their customers, introduced new remote forms of contact, started offering more services/products through their websites and mobile apps, and provided new functionalities fully remotely, basically on demand.
Digital Imperative
Today all Businesses including Banks are dealing with a new kind of customer; a customer who is empowered through knowledge, aware of the possibilities enabled by technology and expecting all Solutions to their needs at their own convenience. The Banking Customer of the modern world is a demanding one, she/he expects speed, efficiency, convenience and security, all at once. To sum-up,
Digital & Mobile Banking has slowly transformed from being a novelty to a necessity, in the modern world.
Amidst an almost uniformly digitalized sector, the core differentiating factor has come down to developing seamless digital customer journeys, customized to individual needs and preferences. The success story of each and every financial institution in the country shall be judged basis realization of their Mobile Banking initiative.
Technology today, is every Bank’s primary ally, enabling them to source & retain customers, reduce overheads, promote loyalty and enhance customer experience. The current state of Mobile Banking reflects an ever-evolving and dynamic sector, wherein customer centricity and innovation are of paramount importance.
Mobile First
Indian Banks are mostly already aboard the Mobile First bandwagon & rightly so. Post Covid 2019, the average customer has been steadily migrating from the brick and mortar branches to online and mobile channels. Customers are increasingly confident of self-serving themselves and Banks in-turn have become more and more comfortable with Virtual Assistance Centers, to address & support their needs and queries, if any. Whilst the physical presence of any Financial Institution in India is still a differentiating factor, the tendency of a modern customer is definitely drifting towards more remote forms of contact.
Some of the key characteristics of the Mobile Banking landscape today are enumerated below
- Customer Centricity: Intuitive Designs, personalized features & real-time issue resolutions are some of the primary features that attracts the modern-day customer
- Diverse Functionality: Modern Banking applications are provisioning a wide array of services, beyond plain vanilla account management; namely loans, investments, financial advisory, forex etc.
- Convenience & Accessibility: Ease of use, leading to usage through and beyond Banking hours
- Enhanced Security: Advanced security measures like biometric authentication, end to end encryption etc.
Innovation & Way Forward
Legacy Banks in today’s world are facing ever incremental competition from Neo-Banks, NBFCs, Fin- Techs etc. This in turn in leading to increasing adoption of enhanced customer experience by
Traditional Banks through adaptive operational efficiency, shaped by Digital & Mobile first approach. As Banks strive to innovate & evolve, some of the forward-thinking measure being implemented are appended
- Integration of Advanced Analytics and real-time decision making tools in Mobile Applications. Enabling instant, secure and personalized services through real time monitoring of customer data & behavioural trends
- Analysing customer preferences, financial patterns through interactive AI algorithms built-into the Mobile application, boosting engagement and promoting loyalty amongst customer base
- Collaboration with new-age Fin-Tech partners further enriching the customer experience
- Virtual Assistants and Chatbot adoption and usage to simultaneously reduce overheads & increase efficiency
- Access of customer data through open-APIs within the Financial & related industries, with prior customer consent & adherence to regulatory guidelines
- Contactless Interactions through NFC, QR, Voice Commands reducing setup & operational expenses
In a world where the customer is digitally oriented, Banks have no other option but to become an integral part of this digital transformation to stay relevant with continuous innovation.
Building the Application
Whilst the perfect Mobile Banking App doesn’t exist & perhaps cannot exist, because of the dynamism of requirements & the incessant evolution of technology on an almost daily basis, the best Mobile App would be the one which would be able to serve the entire platter of Banking services to the incumbent customer, acting as a real-time gateway for orchestrating and managing all customer requirements.
Some of the core functionalities to be considered for developing a new-age Mobile App are enumerated
- Multi-Layered security protocols, including data encryption, biometric access control, real time transaction monitoring & fraud detection etc.
- Availability & seamless replication of Core-Banking features
- API integration
- 24/7 real-time customer support
- Advanced features like budgeting, expense tracker
For a differentiated customer experience Banks can opt for having a data and behaviour driven approach providing the end-user with a hyper-personalized experience. Equal emphasis could also be laid on streamlining of payment & collection journeys, provisioning access to customized Beyond Banking applications.
Future Roadmap
In the near future Mobile Banking has the potential to integrate itself into the broader digital ecosystem of every individual. Enabling and facilitating all kinds of financial transactions through a wide array of services embedded in our day to day lives.
Banks need to embrace a forward thinking approach and embrace Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain and other available technologies whilst ensuring to tackle challenges related to Data Privacy, Security and Regulatory Compliance, provisioning Financial Literacy & Inclusiveness of Rural & Unbanked segments, to stay relevant in an increasingly dynamic & digital world.
This article is authored by D K Das, Senior Executive Vice President, Digital & Transaction Excellence, Bandhan Bank; all views expressed are personal.
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