Internet and mobile phones are set to give banking a whole new face. Internet banking (I-banking) and mobile banking (M-banking) are being promoted as more convenient ways of banking as they give customers access to their banks from any location.
"Except cash withdrawal, all types of transactions are possible in I-banking," said Chintamani Kango, regional business manager of HDFC Bank. All a customer needs is a credit card number and an account number.
"HDFC bank has its own payment gateway which is secured for making online transactions," claimed Kango, adding the HDFC website is 100 per cent fool proof.
On the currency used in these transactions Kango said: "I-banking at our site is done through dollars while some banks also provide it in Indian rupees if the transaction takes place within India," said Kango.
Traders in India, though, still prefer manual or traditional ways of banking, in which the risk factor is minimised, said an Airtel official, who says that the company has already started a M-banking pilot project, known as M-pocket, with ICICI Bank.
"M-banking is at an infant stage. The future, however, holds huge opportunities," said Agrawal, adding that once M-banking is launched, business transactions will take place on mobiles phones. "The way e-commerce found its pace, M-banking too will catch up," said Agrawal.
A Reliance Infocomm technical head claimed that all types of financial applications, except cash withdrawal, will be made available through the company's R-World mobile application. "Not only M-banking but M-commerce will also be available in R-World," he said.
I-banking, though, appears to have its setbacks, as frauds are a possibility. "Recently credit card numbers were leaked from an international call centre, and if this happens, payment gateways, which are very secured, become helpless," said Ramdatt Shukla, branch manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
According to Shukla, the western world is continuously fighting these hackers. "But in India very few banks provide I-banking which is convenient and safe compared with M-banking," claimed Shukla. He said that in urban areas more than 5 per cent of the population use I-banking.
Fraud and control manager of a leading bank, which provides credit card, said that I-banking or M-banking saves time. Also frauds are not common in India.
"One has to be very alert during transactions. The pin number in both I-banking and M-banking are as important as the signature which should be kept secret," he added.
He warned that many people use spy wares like Key Logger through which account numbers and pin numbers are easily traceable. "The spy ware traces each and every key pressed. So just avoid downloads provided from any unknown person," said the official.