You have recently started a mo-bile banking pilot in association with
Centurion Bank. Could you tell us about how the systems functions?
The model mainly focuses on the low-income group. We have opened retail
outlets from where people buy recharge coupons from our agents. The customer can
take an account opening form, which is later deposited in the bank. For the
convenience of the customer, his mobile number is also his account number. To
make a transaction the user merely needs to go to the outlet and either withdraw
or deposit money, according to his need. The transaction will be record-ed
immediately, and the customer will receive an SMS. Basically, the retail outlet
vendor has an account with the bank and the money is either debited or cred-ited
from his account depending on the nature of the transaction. He earns Rs 2 for
every transaction. We get around fifty transactions a day and the value of each
transaction is around Rs 100 to Rs 150. As of now we have appointed thirty
retail points.
What is your revenue stream and what are your financial goals?
We would take a certain percentage of the amount deposited in the bank, since we
are helping the bank in get-ting the funds. We haven't finalized our commercial
model at the moment, but it would be slightly different from this when we take
the model to small villages and towns. We are also in talks with major banks and
operators in the country. And, as of now, Bharti and MTNL pre-paid users can
become our customers.
Further, we plan to have around 100 mn customers in three years, where
currently we have 2,000 cus-tomers.
How can mobile banking help in taking the bank to the un-banked?
As of now there are 270 mn mobile customers and 90% of these are prepaid
customers. Out of this, 90% again are unbanked customers, so the potential for
this kind of service is huge. Mobile banking is the right medium to reach the
unbanked cus-tomers in the country. It also solves the problem for the banks
since mobile transaction is cheaper than ATM transaction and a physical bank
transaction.
RBI has also started the initia-tive of 'financial inclusion'. Under this
scheme, a bank has to appoint a business correspondent in an area to recruit
people for the bank. Mobile banking is a win-win situation for both the banks,
as well as customers trying to open an account. It also helps operators, since a
customer won't be able to easily change his mobile number once his bank account
number is the same as his mobile number.
gagandeep
kaurgagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in
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