HDFC Bank opens account in 'iWatch' banking

Becomes first Indian lender to develop mobile banking app for Apple's latest offering in India

Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC Bank, is not shy of claiming in public that he doesn’t sport a watch and doesn’t use a mobile phone but that aversion has had no rub-off effect on the organisation he heads. The country’s second largest private sector bank, a market leader in mobile banking, has charted a new path by entering “watch banking”.

HDFC Bank is set to become the first Indian bank whose mobile banking application (app) 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.

“We started developing the app when Apple Watch released the developers’ kit. Now, we are ready for the ‘i-watch’. We will offer 8-10 features commonly available on the mobile banking app,” said Nitin Chugh, head of digital banking at HDFC Bank. HDFC Bank’s mobile banking app has about 75 features and those commonly used will be available in the watch, such as balance enquiry, re-charge of pre-paid mobile phones, cheque book request and account statement, as well as paying utility bills.

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. The lender has not yet released FY15 figures on internet banking transactions. “Mobile is completely outpacing internet banking, after mobile apps became popular in the last two-and-a-half years and more and more smartphones started rolling out. As a percentage, mobile banking is growing at a much faster pace," Chugh said.

According to Accenture Digital Consumer Tech Survey 2014, smartphones are the second-most owned pieces of digital consumer technology among 14 categories in the survey, ranging from computers and tablets to televisions and gaming systems.

Mobile banking: Top 4 banks (Transactions in January, 2015 in Rs crore)

HDFC Bank – 4906

ICICI Bank – 2225

SBI – 1586

AXIS – 1440

Source: RBI