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Apparently, mobile banking has emerged the most promising front-end technology for broadening the access of finance in the country. However, people have to worry about frauds in their accounts as they think it has a weaker security system than personal banking. Even RBI is
concerned about the security, especially when it comes to verifying the bonafides of users accessing bank accounts from distant locations. Banks haven't marketed the service aggressively enough to attract customers.

Furthermore, there is a lack of common technology standards for mobile banking. Many protocols are being used for mobile banking - HTML, WAP, SOAP, XML, to name a few. It would be a wise idea for the vendor to develop a mobile banking application that can connect multiple banks. It would require either the application to support multiple protocols or use of a common and widely acceptable set of protocols for data exchange. There are a large number of different mobile phone devices and it is a big challenge for banks to offer mobile banking solution on any type of device. Some of these devices support J2ME and others support WAP browser or only SMS.

Since it's a relatively new concept, many people are still unaware of its existence, benefits and use. In the interiors of India, where banking is still a new concept, mobile banking is still a distant dream.

Concluded.

Dr. Gursharan Singh Kainth started his career as Lecturer at Post Graduate Dept. of Economics, Government College, Gurdaspur, and later at Khalsa College; Amritsar, specializes in Quantitative & Development Economics. Has the distinction of serving Punjab Agricultural Univ, Ludhiana, for more than 2 decades and remained Director-Principal of Saint Soldier Management & Technical Institute, Jalandhar. Currently, heading GAD Institute of Development Studies, Amritsar, a self-financed research institute. Has been honoured with various awards, including Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award, etc.
Article posted on December 1, 2008.