India is finally witnessing an upswing in mobile banking. According to data from the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the volume of mobile banking transactions nearly doubled in the past year, from 2.67 million in December 2011 to 5.22 million in December 2012. The value of transactions in this period grew nearly three-fold from Rs1.98bn ($36.8m) to Rs5.98bn.
Out of India's 75 banks, 53 already offer mobile banking services. At the end of December 2012, there were 20 million registered mobile banking customers in the country, and this number is expected to grow several-fold. India has the world’s second largest number of mobile connections, after China and ahead of the US. There are about 900 million mobile subscriptions in India, more than one-third of which are in rural regions. Contrast this to the 400 million-plus bank accounts and 30 million landline connections, and the impact of the mobile becomes apparent in a country where physical infrastructure represents one of the biggest challenges to growth and development.
