HDFC Bank expands mobile banking

The bank's customers can get account statements, enquire about cheque status, send cheque book requests, get fixed deposit enquiry and transfer fund to any HDFC or any other non-HDFC bank account holder using the ngpay platform, HDFC Bank Country Head - Retail Liabilities, Marketing and Direct Banking Channels Rahul Bhagat said.

"It has always been our endeavour to offer our customers convenience using innovation through technology. By adding fund transfer to the existing bouquet of banking transactions and shopping, HDFC Bank now offers a complete suite of transactions and options through the mobile phone in a fully secured environment," he added.

The fund transfer between two HDFC Bank accounts will happen in real-time. However, when transferring to a non-HDFC Bank account, the transfer process will take 48 hours.

ngpay application can be downloaded on any GPRS-enabled mobile phone by sending an SMS. The customers of HDFC bank, apart from using the application for e-banking activities, can also avail other services including booking of movie, air, rail and bus tickets, shopping and making payments.

JiGrahak Mobility Solution, which owns the ngpay brand, is a VC-funded company that started operations in 2004. In 2006, venture firm Helion Venture Partners invested about $2 million in the company.

For the ngpay application, the company has already partnered with about 25 companies including Yatra, MakeMyTrip, Redbus, Air Deccan, Inox and Futurebazaar.com.

Since the application works on any GPRS enabled phone, the company is aiming to cross an user base of 100,000 in the next two months. While it had already tied up with telecom service provider BPL Mobile to offer the services to its subscribers, the company was also talking to a few other service providers to popularise the product, Sourabh Jain, CEO, ngpay said. ngpay is also in talks with some other banks to offer services to their customers, he added.

At present, 40 per cent of the handsets are GPRS-enabled, Besides, 90 per cent of the new handsets that are being shipped at present are GPRS-enabled.