The Hindu Business Line : Barclays taps into mobile banking to expand reach

Hello Money: Mr Ahmed Khizer Khan (left), CEO, Emerging Markets, Barclays GRCB, and Mr Samir Bhatia, MD, India and Indian Ocean, Barclays Global Retail –

Our Bureau

Mumbai, March 3 Customers of Barclays bank can now carry out many of their banking transactions through their mobile phones. The service offered by Barclays is simple to use and can be accessed by just dialing *598*1# on the mobile.

’Hello Money’, the mobile banking solution offered by Barclays, will enable customers to make account enquiries and financial transactions such as fund transfers, bill payments, requests and other banking services.

’Hello Money’ will be available on all GSM handsets on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea network in 40 cities at a monthly cost of Rs 30. A customer will be guided to the mobile- based menu on dialing *598*1#. He can then choose from a number of options available. After selecting the option he will be required to enter the PIN and continue with the transaction.

A number of banks offer mobile banking facility to their customers, but it requires them to download software and remember SMS codes. The customer is also charged for SMS or GPRS subscription every time he uses the service.

Currently the service will be available in two languages-English and Hindi but the bank plans to include more languages and extend it to CDMA handsets in the next few months.

Barclays had kickstarted its retail banking operations in May last. It has six lakh retail customers of whom five lakh are credit card customers, said Mr Suresh Gurumani, Retail Banking Director, Barclays.

The bank has five branches and has applied to the Reserve Bank of India for more licences.

Mr Samir Bhatia, Managing Director, India and Indian Ocean, Barclays Global Retail and Commercial Banking said that there are constraints in branch expansion and mobile banking was one of the routes to expansion. “Since there are constraints and regulatory hurdles in branch expansion, we intend to use the mobile banking channel coupled with business correspondent model to enhance our retail operations in India,” said Mr Bhatia.

The bank is in talks with micro-finance institutions to extend the mobile banking service.

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