HDFC launches mobile banking in Hindi

Targeting 560-million Hindi-speaking population, the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Tuesday launched a mobile banking application in the national language.

Mobile banking services is part of the bank's overall strategy to use convergent communication platform to engage with customers, senior executive vice-president for Direct Banking Channels and Premier Banking Birendra Sahu said in Indore.

Today 82 per cent of all customer-initiated transactions happen on electronic channels, he said, adding therefore the bank has launched mobile banking solutions ranging from SMS banking, browser-based and application-based applications for smartphones.

There are around 565 million Hindi-speaking population in the country, he said.

He said the bank launched the English-language mobile banking in July-August last year and already has 12 lakh (1.2 million) users, and with the Hindi option, the user base can touch 16 lakh (1.6 million)

soon.

Quoting a CyberMedia report, he said, Android phones constitute about 56.4 per cent of the total 5.5 million smartphones sold in the first half of the year in the country.

This application will allow customers using an Android smartphone to conduct over 30 banking transactions, ranging from balance enquiry and checking transaction history to fund transfer and bill payments.

As of September, the bank had 2,620 branches and 10,316 ATMs spanning 1,454 cities/towns, he said.

For the September quarter, on the back of high retail loans HDFC Bank reported an over 30 per cent rise net profit to Rs 1,560 crore (Rs 15.6 billion).

Its net interest income grew at a healthy 26.7 per cent to Rs 3,731.7 crore (Rs 37.31 billion), due to a 22.9 per cent growth in advances.