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Launched in the presence of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, country’s largest bank State Bank of India’s mobile wallet “State Bank Buddy” will facilitate basic banking functions over the mobile phone in 13 different languages.
“The Wallet which has been launched in English, Hindi and 11 other languages has several features like send money to registered and new users, ask money and send reminders to settle dues, transfer additional cash into an account of your choice free of cost, recharge and pay utility bills instantly, book for movie tickets, flights and hotel and shop for merchandise,” the bank said in a statement.
The service will be available to existing as well as non-SBI customers.
"This is one more step in our ambition of becoming the provider-of-choice for customers' everyday needs, both financial and non-financial. Mobile is going to be at the centre of this transformation and this application will help us strengthen our proposition through this medium," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI.
The app is available on Google Play Store, at present, and soon will be launched on Apple App Store.
Jaitley said that the SBI’s size of operation, geographical reach and its reach among different segments of India could fascinate anyone. He said that in spite of the constraints faced by public sector over private sector banks, SBI remains the market leader in the social and economic programmes of the state.
Commenting on the efforts of SBI in digitising India, he said he visualised the situation where very soon the brick and mortar branches, cheque-books, passbook printing etc will become redundant.
This would make transactions cashless, make expenditure and accounting of money easier, thus bringing more and more money in the official net. State Bank Buddy was not specific only for the tech-savvy people, but being in 13 different languages, it would cater to all kinds of users. The face of consumer spending in India is going to change, the Finance Minister said adding that SBI has always been instrumental in CSR activities and appreciated the bank for throwing its weight behind the ordinary men and said, “it is the marginal men who make the impact”.
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