SBI Continues to Lead Mobile Banking Space

-- Sees 41% jump in mobile banking transactions

-- The bank has over 1.25 crore registered mobile banking users

The State Bank of India (SBI), country’s largest commercial bank, continues to lead in mobile banking space according to RBI data. The bank has seen around 46 % growth in the CY 2014 compared to CY13. 1.25 Crore customers transact on Mobile in the year 2014 compared to 85.78 lac customers in 2013. The rise in volumes in mobile banking at SBI reflects SBI’s commitment towards contributing financial inclusion. SBI, with over 1.25  crore registered mobile banking customers, remains the undisputed market leader in this segment and way ahead of the nearest competitor in the market.

As a part of financial inclusion programme, SBI created more awareness amongst its huge retail and regional customer base. As a result in CY 2014 SBI registered about 70% of the customer from non-Metros. The average transaction per customer was Rs 7,052 which also emphasizes that more and more retail customers are using the mobile banking facility.

Mobile banking services of SBI can be availed by the customers irrespective of the mobile handsets used by them.

Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, State Bank of India said, “India has just witnessed the launch of message-banking. We are confident that once this is understood by people, there will be an explosion of banking activities in the mobile space. This is what the future of banking holds".  

SBI has been aggressive about migration of customers to direct channels and mobile banking service is an important part of this strategy. At present, customers can access the bank through "State Bank Anywhere" - the bank's Smartphone app which is integrated with Internet banking. The service which is expected to be used by the masses is "State Bank Freedom", which can be accessed by all kinds of phones.

“Mobile banking will also play a large part in the role of the yet-to-be-launched payment banks with which SBI plans to have tie-ups”, Smt. Bhattacharya added.

The aggressive promotion of alternative channels is part of SBI's strategy to decongest branches, which is expected to increase as the bank has opened over 1.85 crore new accounts under the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana.