“E” merging e-solutions
September 1, 2022In this modern world, technology is playing a vital part in our day to day lives. The banking industry has gone a dramatic change, thanks to the technology. With fast paced competition, banks are going on digital mode bringing in changes every now and then. Even the government is hell bent on digitalizing the sector as a whole.
Digital banking systems are flexible in nature and can be cost efficient and secure as well. Traditional banks invest a lot of time and resources for their day to day activities. Digitalization helps in reducing the number of steps and people involved thereby reducing the chances of financial errors. They also enable people to easily open up accounts from any device enabled with internet. Also, the services will be available 24*7. People can access and avail these services from anywhere in the world. A lot of interactive tools and educational materials can be provided to the customers and these helps them to carry out with the transactions more easily. Features like budgeting and reminders keeps the customers engaged with the platform. In addition to these, the bank sites are providing extra facilities like trading, buying and selling of gold, availing cards and loans online and even loading one’s digital wallet and highway toll passes. Having said this, it does come with its own share of demerits. A person will always need to have stable internet connectivity for an unobstructed experience. Also, even though there are claims of security; there are increased chances of online frauds and hacks. With all these comforts, spending money has been lot more easily which can lead to unwanted expenditure and liabilities.
The earliest forms of digital banking were in the form of ATMs and debit cards. With the advent of improved broadband, technology and advanced smart phones; digital banking has taken more modern forms like Internet Banking, Point of Sales (PoS) and further advancing to UPI (Unified Payment Interface), Mobile Wallets etc. Smarter technologies and innovations are pushing the future of the banking to the newer heights. Options like UPI are slowly pushing older technologies like debit cards out of the market. Let’s have a look at some of the latest trends in banking.
UPI is an instant real time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). No other payment gateway has gained popularity as the UPI (United Payments Interface). It facilitates interbank peer to peer transfer as well as person to merchant transactions and also enables easy and instant fund transfer. Some of the popular UPI interfaces are Phone Pe, Google Pay, PayTm, BHIM etc. The simplicity of just generating a QR code or just having a phone number or virtual account ID instead of buying PoS machines has made this a popular interface. With scanning options coming up in latest mobiles, QR code is highly useful for touch free transactions.
Internet banking apps for banks such as Yono App, iMobile etc helps simplifying processes such as account opening. With KYC moving from offline to video mode, the opening processes are much faster and do not need our physical presence in banks. Similarly, the same apps use the data procured with the Artificial Intelligence, the system takes into account the CIBIL score and transaction details which help in providing collateral free Pre-approved loans to eligible customers. Mutual funds, demat accounts, Credit and debit cards can be availed at the click of a button in these apps.
Credit, debit cards and PoS machines of these modern days are chip as well as wi-fi enabled which enables enhanced security and hassle free payment. Touch free transactions are possible with the evolution of wi-fi as transfer of money happens at just the tap of the card. Newer technologies like UPI have made the swipe machines QR enabled which helps more easier transfer.
Digital wallet is another interface that has immense popularity among people. Almost all the merchandising platforms are coming up with these options now as in Airtel wallet, Amazon wallet, PayTm wallet etc. People have the option to load in these wallets in digital mode via their net banking and these enable faster problem free transactions than paying via net banking.
Nowadays, digital banking takes the customers on a full financial journey using real time data analytics there by reducing the dependency in traditional banking even though it could not replace it fully. Modern digital banking is all about connecting people with their money in an easier, accurate and efficient way. While the banks might not be in a position to take any major infrastructural changes, end to end automation of services can take banking to newer levels and provide more ease of access to the general public.