All banks participating in the National Financial Switch should do the needed changes and enable capability in customer registration for mobile banking at all their automated teller machines latest by end-March, the Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday.

NFS was conceptualised and developed to enable inter-connection of all bank ATMs.

With the country's high mobile density, RBI said its policy focus had been to encourage banks to leverage on this channel for widening the access to banking services.

Irrespective of whether these are offered through SMS or other application channels, customer registration for mobile banking is critical.

RBI said it had been reiterating the need for simplification of procedure and more standardising of procedures relating to registering of customers for mobile banking.

It said National Payments Corporation of India had since developed the mobile banking registration service/option on NFS and this was ready to be deployed on ATMs of all member banks. Banks should also, it said, facilitate customer registration for mobile banking through other channels.

The image is used for representational purpose only. Photograph: Reuters