State Bank of India claims top slot in mobile banking

MUMBAI: State Bank of India has just shown that elephants can dance and that too more successfully than their nimbler private sector rivals. In December, the bank reached the top position in the trendiest mobile banking space which could determine the success of a bank in retail lending.
The nation's biggest lender, which had to play catch-up with private sector rivals like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, now has 35% market share in mobile banking as its tax payment and fund transfer features drew in more customers, data from the Reserve Bank of India shows. In December 2015, the market share of ICICI Bank was at 21.5 % and for HDFC Bank it was 17.7%

Success for SBI came from its small and medium sized enterprises and traders who took a while to migrate to the digital platform. But once they started, the convenience factor has encouraged them to do more and this could help the bank retain its low-cost savings deposits advantage which otherwise would have migrated to private banks.

We launched two new applications for corporate clients - State Bank Anywhere Saral and State Bank Anywhere. These two applications were aimed at businesses where typically the average value of transaction is higher,'' said Manju Agarwal, deputy managing director of SBI. These applications were launched between May and October of 2015.

SBI Anywhere Saral is for small to medium sized companies, while SBI Anywhere is designed for large corporates.