Executive Summary and key recommendations
1.The developments in mobile telephony, as also the mobile phone density in the
country, with over 870 Mn subscribers, presents a unique opportunity to leverage the
mobile platform to meet the objectives and challenges of financial inclusion. By
harnessing the potential of mobile technology, large sections of the un-banked and
under-banked society can be empowered to become inclusive through the use of
electronic banking services.
2. Dr. Raghuram Rajan, on taking over as Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on
September 4, 2013, had stated that there was substantial potential for mobile based
payments and that a Technical Committee would be set up to examine the options /
alternatives, including the feasibility of using encrypted SMS-based funds transfer
utility, for expanding the reach of mobile banking in the country. Accordingly, a
Technical Committee was constituted by the Reserve bank of India under the
Chairmanship of Shri B. Sambamurthy, Director, Institute for Development and
Research in Banking Technology, to study in-depth the present challenges faced in
mobile banking, the adoption of particular technologies to meet the requirements of
banks as well as vast numbers of mobile users and draw up a road-map for
implementation of the solutions.
3. During its deliberations, the Committee examined the present challenges faced by
banks for greater adoption of mobile banking as also the issues faced in enabling
greater access to the USSD channel by banks. It is pertinent to indicate here that the
Committee considered these challenges with specific reference to millions of
financially excluded populace of the country having no access to formal financial
services, and recommended certain mobile banking solutions, such as multilingual
USSD and IVR access channel, STK based common mobile banking application,
etc., keeping this segment in mind. Another pertinent point to note is that user of
mobile banking services is referred in this Report as “customer” – present and future
-, both of banks and MNOs in the same breath.
4. The Report is divided into six chapters which include Overview of mobile banking,
the SMS based channel, the USSD channel, the Application based channel,
Technical solutions and the way forward and finally the Recommendations. Some of
the recommendations are given below:
(i) Banks need to explore other means of facilitating customer/user
registration process for mobile banking which does not require a visit to the
bank branch. The potential of inter-operable ATM networks and business
correspondent arrangements has to be effectively harnessed towards meeting
this objective. Committee felt that standardization is required in (a) User
registration for mobile banking, (b) User authentication process, and (c) User
interfaces. Recognising the crucial role that customer/user awareness plays in