HDFC Bank leads in mobile banking transactions, grows nine-fold

The bank had 1.49 mn transactions in January 2015 compared to 0.29 mn transactions in January 2014

Private sector lender HDFC Bank has seen more than nine-fold growth in mobile banking transactions in January 2015 compared to January 2014. The bank maintained the lead in mobile transactions, with Rs 4,906.86 crore worth recorded in January. According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it had 1.49 million transactions in January 2015 compared to 290,000 transactions in January 2014.

The bank is followed by ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank with respect to mobile banking transactions. ICICI Bank had transactions worth Rs 2,224.97 crore , followed by SBI with Rs 1,586.4 crore and Axis Bank with Rs 1,440.61 crore worth of transactions.

“We, too, have seen multiple-fold increase in mobile banking transactions in the last year-and-a-half. There has been an increased penetration of smartphones and this is the number one driver. The customers are getting more comfortable with mobile transactions. Besides, all the publicity that is there towards mobile banking, ecommerce, etc, is leading to customers being aware about the common possibilities on mobile phones. Once they (the customers) become aware of that, they take comfort across categories,” said Jairam Sridharan, president (retail lending and payments) at Axis Bank.

HDFC Bank is also launching a mobile banking application (app) that will be available on the Apple Watch, to be launched in India later this month. HDFC Bank is probably the fourth lender in the world to have such an app and the first Indian bank to have its app on the Apple Watch.

The lender has seen robust growth in the internet banking space and recent trends suggest mobile banking, a subset of internet banking, has far outpaced the latter. As of end-March 2014, about 55 per cent of HDFC Bank’s transactions were via the internet (including mobile) as compared to 44 per cent before.

Among public sector banks, Canara Bank saw one of the biggest jumps in mobile banking transactions compared to January 2014. The value of its mobile banking transactions rose to Rs 883.47 crore in January 2015 compared to Rs 7 crore in January 2014.