All banks must have mobile banking facility by March 31: Govt

The government has asked all banks to provide mobile banking facility to all customers by March 31 in a bid to push digital transactions.

"What we have asked the banks to do is to enable all customers who have mobiles for mobile banking... We are asking banks to run a nationwide campaign up to March 31 to ensure that every customer who has a mobile phone is enabled for mobile banking," Electronics and IT Secretary Aruna Sundarajan told reporters in New Delhi.

She added this is part of the government's efforts to boost the digital payment system.

"The reason is earlier mobile banking wasn't such a priority. And therefore, many customers may not have said they want mobile banking services. But today, they want it... This is to ensure that whoever wants to do mobile banking but has not been enabled, should be enabled by March 31," she said.

Sundarajan said customers who are using UPI or BHIM app should automatically be enabled for mobile banking.

"We have said that any customer who accesses UPI or BHIM they should automatically be enabled for mobile banking because it means they want mobile banking," she said, adding the banks have been asked to enable this.

The government has been aggressively pushing payments through digital platforms, especially after announcing its demonetisation exercise on November 8.