SBI has 50% share in mobile banking

MUMBAI: The State Bank of India (SBI) has emerged a surprise market leader in mobile banking, accounting for half of all mobile transactions in the country. Although traditionally new generation private banks and foreign banks have been the early adopters of alternative platforms, the 208-year-old Indian bank is preparing to leapfrog its customers directly from branches to mobiles as part of its strategy to reach out to the unbanked and decongest branches.

The bank has over 1.15 crore mobile banking users, which is larger than the mobile banking customer base of large banks in the West. Only a couple of Chinese banks have more mobile banking customers. The number is expected to rise dramatically as the ratio of mobile banking customers rises from 4.5% at present to 12% in two years and possibly 60% after three years as the bank completes its channel integration.

"Message-based banking, where you don't even need smartphones, has just been launched (in India). I do believe that once this is understood by people, there will be an explosion of activity in the mobile space. This is what the future holds," said SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya. She said mobile banking will also play a large part in the role of the yet-to-be-launched payment banks with which SBI plans to have tie-ups.

State Bank of India