By IANS
Chicago : From brick and mortar buildings to ATMs to PCs, banking has now shrunk into people’s pockets with India’s second largest bank, ICICI Bank, introducing mobile phone banking using Chicago-based C-SAM’s patented technology.
Mobile, ICICI’s mobile offering, is being projected as “the world’s most comprehensive mobile banking solution”. With the country’s mobile population well in the excess of 200 million, phone applications rather than just voice calls are expected to become the main draw.
It is in this context that iMobile, which offers more than 40 different services, is seen to be path-breaking.
While mobile banking has caught on in Japan and Europe to some extent, it still remains in its nascent stages since the traditionally cautious banking industry is slow to adopt new technologies.
It is just beginning to acquire some traction in the US where the leading Bank of America has reported early success in customers using mobile banking. According to some reports, more than half a million customers have already begun using it.
Unlike similar solutions elsewhere in the world, where ICICI-C-SAM solution stands apart is the sheer number of services it offers through highly secure and user-friendly interface.
“iMobile’s simple and intuitive icon based interface makes it significantly more appealing to customers compared to other menu and messaging based solutions. iMobile offers more than 40 different services covering banking, fund transfer (within ICICI Bank and outside ICICI Bank), demat services, credit card services, bill payments, mobile recharge, apply now services and locator services, ” C-SAM said in a statement.
Bank customers can use the services worldwide.
“Customers who are already registered for mobile alerts can download iMobile by sending an SMS to a short code. Customers who have GPRS connection will receive a WAP link for activation. Customers who do not have GPRS can download iMobile from ICICI Bank.com on their desktops. It can then be transferred on to their handsets using either Bluetooth or data cable,” it said.
iMobile works on almost all types of phones and across all GSM networks. The bank is in discussions with CDMA network operators and plans to extend the service shortly.
“Additionally, the solution works across both GPRS networks as well as secure SMS, making it the world’s only commercial mobile banking solution that enables a rich client based application to seamlessly operate over data and SMS,” the company said.
Maninder Juneja, head of the retail liabilities group of ICICI Bank, said: “ICICI Bank is the first bank in the country to offer such a large suite of banking services on mobile phones. With the increasing penetration of mobile phones, a large number of customers can now access accounts and transact at the touch of a button.”
“The launch of iMobile is very timely as it will enable ICICI to go beyond ATM and PC based banking, reaching out to the rapidly growing mobile phone users to not only extend their branch services but also develop a deeper customer relationship,” Mehul Desai, CEO the Oak Brook, Illinois-based C-SAM Inc., told IANS.
“With additional services beyond mobile banking and the ability to enable transactions over NFC (near field communication), C-SAM’s platform will ensure that ICICI Bank can continue to scale the solution, providing their customers with a single and secure mobile interface for remote as well as proximity transactions,” said Chandrashekar Rao, vice president of deployments at C-SAM Inc.
Telecom guru Sam Pitroda founded C-SAM based on his eight patents covering an entire spectrum of mobile transaction technology.