India leads UK, Australia in affinity towards mobile banking:

Survey

A  new survey has revealed that Indians are more likely to use mobile banking apps as compared to people in the UK, the UAE and Australia. They are also likely to be more critical of the bank’s services and in the event of a poor experience, they are more likely to post about the experience on social media. The survey titled Customer Experience in Banking commissioned by global digital business solutions provider Avaya, and conducted by research firm YouGov, sampled 5,000 consumers across the four countries. It found that one in every four Indians preferred using a bank’s app over interfacing with a human agent.

The survey further revealed that 25 percent of mobile banking customers in India rant on social media as opposed to 15 percent in the UK.  And 47 percent are keen to receive updates about a new launch or service, compared to just 10 percent in the UK. Virtual Financial Advisors (VFAs) – bank representatives who engage with customers virtually and service them remotely with online tools – are gaining popularity now. “With India being on the tip of digital revolution, organizations need to digitally transform to meet the ever-increasing demands of their customers and banking is one of the sectors leading the way,” Vishal Agrawal, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Avaya, said. ALSO READ: Government asks all banks to provide mobile banking facility by March 31According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, not only has the volume of mobile banking transactions soared in the last one year, but the value has grown as well. Between April 2016 and November 2016, transactions worth Rs. 6.9 lakh crore had been undertaken on mobile banking apps, compared to Rs. 4 lakh crore in 2015. RBI said that with the rise in smartphone users, mobile banking had become a natural channel of for both customers and banks. Today, all major public and private banks in the country have a mobile app. About 52 banks have also developed a separate UPI app to help users conduct cashless transactions. ALSO READ: UPI now available offline via USSD-based mobile banking; here’s how it works

The country’s top five banks – SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra – generate more than 90 percent of m-banking transactions. ICICI, India’s biggest private lender, rolled out its multi-language mobile app to drive adoption among rural customers. The Mera iMobile app supports 11 Indian languages (Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Bengali, Assamese Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam) and offers 135 banking services from funds transfer to loan tracking. As more banks customize their offerings for people, adoption will only grow. And so will the social media complaints.