The Hindu Business Line : Soon, it will be mobiles versus plastic cards

A couple of private banks are looking at an enriched version of mobile phones to carry out normal banking transactions and payments execution as well.

The transition - from mere transaction details and addressing simple queries now available via the cell - will help one to shop through his mobile by routing payments from his account/multiple accounts.

ICICI Bank is gearing to conduct a test run next month. The bank has tied up with Airtel and mChek for the purpose, said Mr Sachin Khandelwal, Head - Cards Product Group of ICICI Bank.

"A virtual card will be created on the phone through which an individual can carry out complete banking transactions."

Mr Khandelwal said all a customer had to do was to give his mobile number and the payment to be made to the merchant.

The merchant will furnish the information given via his mobile to mChek, a mobile payment platform, which in turn will channel it to the bank for authorising the transaction, before which mChek will seek customer authorisation (PIN entered authorisation) to carry forward the transaction.

Once cleared by the customer, the confirmation will be sent to the customer again and the merchant to enable him to receive payment from the bank.

Consumers would want it just for the convenience it offered, said Mr Khandelwal.

There are currently about 70 million debit cards and 23 million credit cards in circulation in the country. Atom Technologies, a digital retail initiative of Financial Technologies, has designed the `application" for mobiles. To enable the mobile, the customer has to download the company's application onto his handset, which must be Java enabled.

Once the application is downloaded, the customer gets a `unique atomic id' to initiate cash transactions.

"We are in talks with a number of banks. We have also signed agreements with a few of them. It is now for the banks to get started," said Mr Dewang Neralla, Director and Chief Technology Architect, Financial Technologies and Director, Atom Tech.

He said the total mobile banking would provide greater security (all transactions are PIN protected) and convenience (by doing away with multiple credit/debit cards) and would definitely draw people.

Mr Narella said that it would be useful for a person owning multiple cards and in case the mobile was lost all one had to do was to call up Atom Technologies to deactivate the id.

In talks

The company is in talks with ATM manufacturers also. "We have developed the required application for enabling the use of mobile phones for cash withdrawal from ATMs and manufacturers should accordingly assemble their ATMs to be able to authenticate transactions," he said.

He indicated that charges of `total mobile banking' would be lower than the paper-based payment transfers.

Mobiles service providers and senior bankers have welcomed the new customer oriented initiative.

Mr Manoj Paul, Vice-President - Business Head - BFSI Enterprise (Corporation), Bharti Airtel, said, "Mobile phone is also more personalised than computers which are shared, so more safe than internet banking," he said.

"Mobile payments can prove to be very useful for micro payments and rural banking," Mr Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Industrial Development Bank of India, said.

In some remote areas of Africa, where there are no branches, mobile phones provide the only means of banking. Though the technology is good I feel that the system should be robust and tamper proof so that people cannot misuse it," said Mr R.S. Reddy, Executive Director, Union Bank of India

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