49 per cent subscribers use mobile banking: Sybase survey

In a survey titled ‘Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector’, mobile technology company Sybase 365 has found that 81 per cent of 311 Indian mobile phone customers surveyed are aware of mobile banking for checking their account balance. Almost half (49 per cent) of the respondents said they had used the mobile banking service in the last three months. This is the highest figure among the five countries surveyed in the Asia Pacific.

Some 36 per cent of the respondents said they would move to a bank which offers free mobile banking services. Indians are also well aware of their financial status: 42 per cent of the respondents could say how much money they had in their bank account at the time. However, Indians are very concerned about security: The survey found that 67 per cent of the respondents expressed an interest in receiving reports about possible fraud transactions and an ability to freeze their cards through the mobile. The respondents were also willing to pay for these services – 35 per cent said they would pay for the fraud transaction reports and 41 per cent said they would pay for freezing their card.

The survey was conducted among 11,818 mobile phone subscribers in Australia, China, India, Singapore and Taiwan. It was conducted through online questionnaires in May.