• Leading banks in India like SBI are continuously upgrading digital capabilities and offering new products through digitalisation
• Moody’s reports that India’s financial and banking industry is expected to increase its investments in technology and improve products and services in the coming years
• The benefits of increased digitalisation however will only be shared among the top leading banks in the country since smaller banks and fintechs lack the capacity and capability to compete

State Bank of India (SBI) subsidiary SBI Payments recently launched Yono Merchant App. The app will allow merchants to turn their near field communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones into payment acceptance devices.

According to SBI the app was launched in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s plan to create a payments infrastructure development fund (PIDF) to encourage acquirers to deploy point of sale (PoS) infrastructure in lesser penetrated areas of the country.

Dinesh Kumar Khara, chairman of SBI said, “In the next two to three years, we are aiming to digitise millions of merchants by upgrading their mobile phones into a PoS device accepting all form factors, accessing value-added services such as loyalty, GST invoicing, inventory management, and connecting into an interface to avail other banking products at a click of a button”.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, on the other hand, recently launched Kotak Remit in its banking app which will allow users to instantly send up to $25,000 abroad without the need to present any physical documents.

The country’s growing middle income population, the government’s desire to onboard the unbanked, and the demand for cheaper and convenient technologies both on the side of buyers and retailers have prompted large banks to accelerate the development of technology-related products in the pipeline. India’s smartphone base is expected to rise to 820 million users within ...

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Keywords:Digital Payments, Mobile Banking, Technology, Financial Market