ICICI Bank account holders can use Twitter to transfer funds

Customers of ICICI Bank can use their Twitter account for real-time fund transfers, prepaid mobile recharges and to check bank balance.
Private sector lender ICICI Bank today launched a facility which allows account-holders to transfer funds through Twitter.
The user will have to subscribe ('follow') the bank's Twitter handle and register for the facility, it said.
For fund transfer, the sender needs to know the beneficiary's Twitter handle. The sender will get an SMS with a unique code after the transfer; the beneficiary would need to enter it on the special webpage where he/she would be directed, to complete the transaction.

"This complies with all the regulatory requirements of two-factor authentication," executive director Rajiv Sabharwal said.
The bank is using the NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) or RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) for the transfer and will soon be joining IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) mode too, he said.

The bank will not charge for such fund transfers but the sender will have to pay the fees as applicable for a NEFT or RTGS transaction.
Beneficiaries who have account with another bank will have to put in that bank's IFSC code to receive the payment, Sabharwal said.
ICICI Bank claimed it is the first in Asia and only second in the world to offer a Twitter-based fund transfer service. A year ago it launched facility to transfer funds through the Facebook and according to Sabharwal it has now 30,000 active Facebook users.

Claiming that the bank serves the highest number of youth in the country, he said it launched the new service in view of the demographic.
It has 2.8 million registered mobile banking users and 15 million internet banking users, he said, adding that a team of 100 people is working on digital banking within the bank.
ICICI Bank is also working on a mobile digital wallet which will work on near-field communication technology, just like its rival HDFC Bank, he said, adding it will be launched this year itself. It is also working on banking services through wearable devices, the kind of which are a rage with fitness enthusiasts.