Oct. 28: With government pushing for mobile banking, Trai has come out with a consultative paper to seek people’s views on how to make mobile transactions secure. “Implementing a banking system through mobile phones is a challenging task. Banks would look for quality of service in terms of delivery and security of messages,” said Trai.
The telecom regulator said that the telecom operators may have to sign an agreement with the banks to guarantee delivery of the service, the security of the message over the air and also encryption of the data which could be stored in the mobile phone. The customers should have the facility to view his account whenever he wants.
An inter-ministerial group on mobile banking had recommended creation of mobile linked accounts by the banks. According to the group a mobile consumer should be able to deposit and withdraw cash, transfer funds and able to see the balance.
Though the government had been trying to bring financial services to the rural population and the other disadvantaged sections of society, success has been limited.
Currently in India a large section of rural and poor population have access to mobiles but not to financial services. There are around 209 million rural mobile subscribers that by far outstrip bank account holders in these areas.