Internet Banking Overtaking Branch Banking In The Near Future, Says ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank is the third largest bank in the country in terms lending assets has declared that they see Netbanking taking over traditional branch banking very soon. It seems netbanking constitutes a third of its total transactions and they are looking and preparing for it to become the largest banking channel in the near future. This is indicative of the progress that has been achieved due to steps and innovations like Internet banking and mobile banking in addition to m-commerce initiatives like Airtel Money and m-paisa.

Chanda Kochhar, Chief Executive and Managing Director of ICICI says that an Internet banking future is obvious since the smartphone and tablet sector has been growing by over 100% every year as compared to the desktop segment which shows a yearly growth of somewhere around 20%.

With this in mind, the company has gone ahead and launched a few new initiatives which are are technologically advanced and lay a greater stress on mobile banking. These initiatives include electronic branches which are one stop shops for all banking needs, tablet banking, E-locker, help-on-tab (a customer self-service initiative) and others. You can get a full and detailed list of these new services here.

Banks in India have now realised where the future is going and they are making sure that they can make it easier for a consumer to use technology to bank quickly and efficiently. I have had a good experience with the various online and mobile banking services provided by HDFC Bank and as far as I know, most banks are ramping up their tech in the same way. This is a very good as a lot of time wasted previously by physically going to a branch to carry out transactions. The number of people and the queues didn’t make the situation better at all. Improvements in banking let us use that time and put it to better use.

That being said, I am a little concerned about the security of our data when we bank using mobile apps and the Internet. While it is true that if you are safe with your browsing and app downloading habits, you won’t actually get attacked, sometimes it is really not up to you. Cyber crime in India is rising and if something like a LinkedIn hack happens to say, a bank’s online database, then a lot of hell will break lose. This is however up to the bank and they should make sure that they use the best encryption and security practises to keep our data and our money safe.