Mobile Banking For Inclusive Growth - Punjab National Bank ...

e-trackattached to existing branches. The units are located overall is profitable There is also clear evidence thatat strategic market centers servicing surrounding other commercial banks invillages and serve each area once or twice a week onKenya is responding to this new competitivemarket days. They provide customers with the sameenvironment. Branch closures are less common andfinancial services as in normal branches, such asbanks are focusing heavily on how to harness thedeposits and savings, money transfers, andtechnology of mobile communications to enableremittance processing and loans. The service helpstransactions and thus increase their reach Need Toto reduce congestion in banks existing branches, asDevelop Collaborative Mode For Indiawell as increases the bank's penetration. MobileHowever as has been pointed out by K.C.customers pay the same rates for their transactions asCHAKRAVARTY Dy. Govern or of R.B.I.thatat branches plus a small fee for the mobile access.indeed it is a great opportunity for banks to outreachThe mobile banks consist of an all terrain four-wheelthe bottom of the pyramid but there is need todrive vehicles, are manned by 2-3 bank employeesdevelop an effective collaboration between mobilewho meet customers at designated market places onservice provider and banks. He also emphasized thatfixed days each week. Once there, the team servesit would be necessary to open accounts with the bankcustomers from buildings that have been rented outbefore bank could provide banking services andat the market places. The mobile units use solarproducts to him. In fact he has rightly raised somepower to run a computerized transaction processinglimitations of banks to fast forward this scheme.system that is directly linked to the home branchesThese are as follows:via GPS and satellite.1. Banking technology is of recent origin andThe Innovationtherefore there is need for scaling up the sameThe mobile bank project reverses a long termand that would obviously take some time andtrend for commercial banks in Kenya to withdrawinvestment;from rural areas. Satellite centers with sufficient2. Payment facilities are only one area wherebusiness volumes can become fixed branches,banks could be active and for that also there isenabling the mobile unit to take services to new andneed to develop appropriate delivery model;more remote customers.andThis model can be easily replicated. Equity3. The recent initiative taken by RBI to permithas been approached by a number of banksbanks to appoint correspondents need to bethroughout Africa interested in understanding andtrained to the latest gadgets of mobileadopting this model for their own operations.telephony and internet banking.The ResultsIn fact he was frank enough to opine that banksThe results have been impressive. There areare laggards and therefore to expedite thenow more than 120 villages covered by mobile units,introduction of the system one has to look fora six fold increase over the original target of 20, andalternative non-bank models.the units are servicing some 40,000 new customers,Open Up Opportunities To Mfisof which nearly half are women. Average transactiontimes are 3 minutes, compared to the norm of 10 Even if one may not hold such a pessimisticminutes at normal branches. The mobile business view, it cannot be overlooked that there existJanuary-March-20108