Mobile payments have been around for sometime but this segment is primarily being driven by standalone payment technology players like paymate, mchek, ngpay and others. There has been very little if at all any activity from the banks side.
So this news is very welcome given that the mobile banking regulations were recently announced by RBI. Citibank today announced the launch of Citi Mobile a downloadable mobile application that provides on-the-go banking. Through Citi Mobile, customers can check account balances, send money, issue drafts, pay bills, make credit card payments, register for services like e-Statements, request for a cheque book, stop payments and much more.
What are the requirements for CitiMobile?
The requirements for accessing Citi Mobile are a Citibank Banking/Credit Card account, an active Internet PIN, a mobile number that is registered with the bank, and a Java-enabled mobile phone with a GPRS connection.
How can one download it?
In order to download customers can SMS MBANK followed by the last 4 digits of their Debit/Credit Card number to 52484. An SMS response will be delivered to the customer’s mobile phone indicating the URL for Citi Mobile. This URL can be used to download Citi Mobile onto the mobile phone.
Is it secure?
On Citi Mobile, all customer interaction is https secure and encrypted using 128-bit SSL; further, no customer data is stored on the mobile phone, making this one of the most secure access channels.
I have tried working with my ASUS P320…and this application did not support my handset…what is the use…..????!!!!
Fastastic. Very happy to see a bank moving on this front. Its time the local banks adopted a mobile strategy. There is some way to go with the technology – but eventually the winner will be the bank that can provide a platform for the lowest common denominator in a low cost way. Only then will our society reap the benefits of providing banking services to the long tail in rural India.
most of the times these apps are made compatible wit the very popular and common handsets like nokia and sony. nokia and sony capture most of the chunk of the handset market. Also nokia provides a huge variety of options in terms of handsets.. from the cheapest 1100 to the high end communicators… phones like asus still need to penetrate the Indian market and mindset…
I’ve been literally yearning for this one for a long long time
My Bro works at citibank as AVP Cash And Trade. Mailed him the link. Thanks for the update.