India is evidently leading the world in mobile phone growth, and this is being seen as a boon by the banking sector. The convenience of usage of this revolutionary form of banking has triggered shift in the user behavior. The mobile banking usage in the country has outpaced Internet banking, stated Mr.Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI bank in a telephonic press conference earlier today where he announced the features of the significantly different and a much upgraded iMobile app.
More digital channels are being used in the industry creating a major spurt through mobiles. The banks are now keen on creating interplay in those channels where in customers can relate to them better.
ICICI bank has made sure the iMobile app reaches a wide array of users, and has hence made it available on iOS, Android and Windows. The earlier version is also available on Java and Blackberry app stores.
Having close to 110 services, it claims to be the most comprehensive application on the face of Indian banking, providing 30 percent more services than any other Indian bank. Mr.Sabharwal also indicated that they’re not very far from reaching the mark of 200 services, which would have the bank’s mobile banking growth rate boost by a whooping 400 percent by the end of this year.
Here are a few of the services that would cause a sea change in mobile banking behavior of the consumer:
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Convenient choice of login:
Customers can now choose the type of login they would want to use for iMobile app. They can either use a PIN based access or use their existing internet banking user id and password
Integrated view:
iMobile allows customers to link and view all their ICICI Bank relationships (accounts / mortgages / cards / PPF) from within the app.
Direct calls to bank’s call center:
It connects customers directly with the call center without having to authenticate themselves any further, as you have already authenticated yourself through your app. You can also chat directly without any authentication.
Integration with ‘Google Now’:
Customers will get alerts and notifications on the payment due date of their credit card, maturity of their FD among others through ‘Google Now’. It has been the first bank on face of the earth to have been integrated with Google Now.
Cardless cash withdrawal:
Customers can now send money to anyone in the country, even if the beneficiary does not have a bank account from the ‘all-new-iMobile’ itself. The beneficiary can then withdraw the money from ICICI Bank ATMs without using a debit card.
Open ‘iWish’ deposits:
Using the iMobile app, customers can create iWish, a flexible and online recurring deposit, as well as make goal payments. Even your friends could support you to complete your wishes.
Besides these, you can also mark transactions as favourites, so that your app could memorize them for you. The app also provides with a digital passbook feature where you can make annotations just like those in physical pass books and have them saved. One can also shop through the app, which has a dedicated mobile payment gateway for a faster checkout.
Mr. Sabharwal said, “At ICICI Bank, we believe in investing in innovative technology much ahead of its time. In line with this philosophy, we introduced the country’s first mobile banking app in 2008. Every year, since then, the number of people using our mobile banking platform has doubled. Today, close to 60% of our transactions are carried out on internet and mobile banking channels. We expect mobile banking to continue to grow at a rapid pace, giving us a larger scope to promote its usage among both urban and rural customers.”
With the competitive spirits rising among private and foreign banks, the public-sector banks have also jumped on the bandwagon. There are offers galore for the consumers. The ICICI bank is offering Provogue watches for the first transaction over the app, whereas SBI has brought reward points under its umbrella! So in raining offers, its time to get fingers rolling over phones!
The company already has 5 million active mobile banking customers, and with the new and unique features, it plans to reach the 1 crore mark by the end of this year.
Completley fraudulent schemes
And most irritating bank ever scene
Not only the servise is creepy also offers provided are just ads which are never fullfiled
This icici i mobile app looks good and its fast compared to all other banking mobile applications but i lost my money while recharging through it .Atleast i was expecting a message saying that transaction was failure .And i have done a transaction where is my provogue watch ??? Now i see IPAD Air 2 ,i would like to see the ppl recieving it !!
The nuisance with these banking apps is they expect a one time SMS for registration and that never works. And each SMS cost Rs. 5 and everytime you fail you are charged! I see these are even more common with dual SIM mobiles.