You can operate bank account using your mobile phone

Almost all the banks are offering mobile banking facilities. Now in few months the bank customers will be able to withdraw, deposit and transfer cash using mobile phones that too without opening a conventional bank account. The government is finalizing the norms related to elaborate technology and regulatory architecture for delivering banking services through “mobile-linked no frills accounts.”

Most probably by September government will come out with guidelines and roll out the first such account as it aims to bring about financial inclusion of all section by spreading banking services in remote areas.

Meanwhile government has identified 73,200 villages having a population of more than 2,000 people where it will be providing mobile-linked basic bank services by March 2012.

In India there are about 500-million-plus mobile phone network, government aim to use these network to offer basic financial services, especially in those areas where still there is no bank branches.

An anonymous official told most likely the scheme will be rolled out from Orissa, in the state the mobile phone coverage is below 50 per cent through this roll out it aims to serve twin objectives of spreading banking services and cellular phone penetration.

At present the customers using their mobile phones are able to deposit up to Rs 5,000 with telecom operators.

This amount can be used for merchant transactions, but customers cannot do physical transfer of funds outside of the banking system. Such accounts will also involve less paper work. It will require valid government ID scheme.

Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) recommended timelines for mobile-banking solutions which were finalized earlier this month.

An official who was present in the meeting told the National Payment Corporation of India, a non-profit company that provides low-cost infrastructure for providing payment services among banks, will be helping in preparing the back-end technology solutions. This will link the mobile number of the person to his no-frills bank account. Finally, it will be incorporated with the Unique Identity number once it gets operationalized.

Another official informed, “The roll out of the first accounts is likely to begin by September 2010.”