Now Tablet Banking By Private Banks

Now, banking on tablets to win customers

BEENA PARMAR  The Hindu Business Line                               MUMBAI, MARCH 3:  

Using a ‘tablet’ to open bank accounts seems to be catching on. After ICICI Bank’s advertising blitzkrieg with Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan on how an account can be opened in a jiffy, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank too have jumped on the ‘tablet banking’ bandwagon.

These banks are working on rolling out of their tab banking initiative, not just for account opening but also for putting through transactions, in a bid to win more retail customers.

Apart from opening current and savings bank accounts, ICICI Bank has started using tablets to offer mortgages in cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Surat, where customers can apply and get loans sanctioned on the same day, according to Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director at ICICI Bank.

Banks are taking to ‘tab banking’ to reach out to potential customers across the country, thereby reducing the turnaround time and costs to the bank.

Power of mobility

Says Jairam Sridharan, President of Consumer Lending for Axis Bank: “Everyone is trying to explore the power of mobility. Mobile has the power to do doorstep banking, and that has always been the way of getting sticky customers. Also, consumers are increasingly becoming more comfortable going digital.”

“We piloted it (tablet banking) about 10 months ago with our high-end and priority customers and are gauging their experience.

“We will look at going full-fledged as the costs are just a tenth of branch banking,” said KVS Manian, President - Consumer Banking, Kotak Bank. Using a tablet equipped with mobile and Internet connectivity, the bank’s executive fills account-opening details, clicks the customer’s picture and takes the relevant KYC (Know Your Customer) documents without the customer having to visit the bank branch. This brings down the percentage of re-work from 7 per cent to 1 per cent, ICICI Bank said.

For better bonding

The tablet is a fully loaded device which has application forms, bank’s videos explaining products and their features.

Sabharwal said, “Tab banking is an effort to harness technology to ease the documentation process, thereby eliminating rejections due to incomplete account opening form or KYC mismatch.

“…We also wanted to open multiple channels for our customers and allow them to choose the channel they prefer. Our effort is to enhance the customers’ experience and improve our bond with them.” In addition, under tab banking, the bank plans to offer tractor loans to farmers and integrate the tablet with the Aadhaar card issued by the Government to be used as e-KYC.

On similar lines, Axis Bank recently introduced Aadhaar-based eKYC mode of account opening aimed at covering NREGS beneficiaries and pensioners in Andhra Pradesh.

This will offer paperless account opening services within a day through Micro-ATMs — a biometric handheld device.

So far, ICICI Bank has opened half a million accounts in about eight months. Going forward, it plans to add one lakh accounts every month. At present, 10,000 tablets are in circulation in 13 cities.

The bank hopes to double this number in the next three months.

With increased adoption of smartphones, more banks are likely to take to tab banking, going forward.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/now-banking-on-tablets-to-win-customers/article5747094.ece