Kotak Mahindra bank launches offline mobile banking app

Kotak Mahindra Bank on Tuesday launched an internet-free, data-free, offline and regional language powered mobile banking app, which it said was India's first, to serve under-banked and unbanked regions of India.

"Kotak Bharat App works without internet or the requirement of data in a smart phone to make transactions. We are introducing a funds transfer limit of Rs.2,500 per day for now and will increase it in the future," said the private sector bank's digital initiatives head Deepak Sharma.

The SMS powered Android app needs smartphones running at least Android version 2.2.3 and above to transact.

"English along with regional languages Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada are the currently available language which will be expanded in the future," added Sharma.

Along with funds transfer, other key features include operating savings and current accounts, credit card, mobile phone recharge, DTH services and the ability to apply for government scheme Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bhima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bhima Yojana, he said.

Sharma also highlighted that the bank is the first in India to launch an offline mobile banking app.

Noting the substantially rising mobile banking use, he said: "In September, Kotak bank clocked Rs.1,700 crore in mobile banking transactions. In the last one year, we grew by 300 percent and 30 percent of our customer base uses mobile banking."

The bank has 1,261 branches and 1,939 ATMs at 641 locations.

--Indo-Asian News Serive

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