Is Internet Banking catching up in India?

Yes is the one line answer. We would see as to how I could prove this in the following paragraph. A decade ago internet itself is considered as a luxury in India but now it is a different case. With reduction in the rates every now and then on various plans by various companies like

Tata, Reliance, Bharti, Hathway, Sify etc., Internet has become an affordable one and in fact one of the cheapest in the world. This has seen Indian Internet users rising on alarmingly high rate next to China. Though our population (density) is high still we are lagging behind in numbers (internet usage per user) when compared to USA, CHINA, UK and Japan we would overtake few of the countries in a short while.

Now, we came to the internet banking age. We traditionally believed in branch banking where in we use to go the branch personally for making banking transactions but now it is not the case. We can do our banking at finger tips with the help of the internet. It not only enables the users to make the transaction on the computer but also through the mobile phone. Companies like Verisign were giving security to the internet users so that no scam happens on the internet. Banking websites even offer additional security like firewalls, encryption etc to make the websites safer.

Companies like Master card and Visa is now offering additional security for internet credit card users through MasterCard Secure Code and Verified by Visa and RBI has made it compulsory for all the users to get their registered by August 1st without which they cannot use the card for online transactions. Those days foreign banks like HSBC, SCB, and Citibank offered Internet banking but now Indian banks like Canara bank, Union Bank and Indian Overseas bank has also started offering internet banking in full fledge. This serves as an advantage for both the customers as well as for the bank since it is a cost effective method for the banks wherein they can also serve more customers for more complex transactions in the bank. Also one can transfer funds online to any A/c in India provided they are signed up for the service through IFSC code which not only saves time but also money and it prevents writing cheques unnecessarily.

Banks even offer discounts and offers and reward points for using their website for doing banking transactions which is a boon for customers. Thus one need not have to travel all the way to bank unless needed. E-Commerce has clearly revolutionized the Indian banking system. A latest report says Internet banking users in India is pegged at over 2 million and represents 15% of internet users in India and active users would be just less than a million which is 0.096% of the total population. The day where all customers do banking only on the internet is not far away...

By

S Sarath Babu