How ICICI became the leader of mobile banking in India

Mobile banking has never been as popular in India and ICICI has emerged the undisputed leader, according to July records. With the maximum number of transactions worth over Rs 6,800 crores and a record 53.2 lakh transactions, it not only leads among private sector banks, it is twice the next bank in the list.

So what are the reasons that drove this success for the 21 year old bank? Let’s take you through the journey from its entry into the space to becoming the leader, introducing some of the ‘firsts’ in the space too.

Most important mission

iMobile- The iMobile app of ICICI Bank is one of the key drivers for the high value growth in the mobile banking space.

According to RBI data, the bank has recorded transactions nearly worth Rs 16,000 crores, in fiscal 2015.

“As the only bank with a dedicated mobile payments gateway, ICICI bank has the highest success rate in a mobile banking transaction in the country,” said Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank.

The unique payment gateway has allowed the bank to customize the app based on transactional needs. Clearly, the technological investment in upgrading the app has paid off as shopping and merchandise has recorded 700% growth in Q1 alone, when compared against last year.

Currently, there are nearly 125 services on the mobile banking app.

Prepaid Mobile Recharge and Shopping are the key features of the app that is bringing traffic to it.

Some of the other features that have been added to iMobile include Forex, buying mutual funds on mobile for wealth customers, adding payee through iMobile for fund transfers 24x7 and personalized pre-qualified loan offers to customers on the platform.

“Our internet plus mobile transactions are 60% of our transactions. Further, over 50% of our transactions on mobile are happening beyond the top 20 cities, which mean that our ability to reach out to customers in a much wider geography is significantly better and it is also flowing from the fact that we have comprehensive services. So, we have not only looked at bigger markets, but also customers in the smaller markets,” added Sabharwal.

The bank has a plan to grow mobile banking transactions to Rs 80,000 crore by end of this fiscal.

First mission

Pockets- ICICI Bank introduced India’s first digital bank, Pockets. The digital wallet of Pockets, has over 2.5 million downloads, of which 70% are non-ICICI Bank customers.



First in the world

mVisa- ICICI Bank not only leads the space in India, it has pioneered some world first too. For the first time in the world, ICICI Bank launched a new service for Pockets users, mVisa, a mobile payment solution for consumers and merchants. With this service, users of Pockets can make cashless payments from their smart phones using their debit card by simply scanning a mVisa Quick Response (QR) code at a merchant location without swiping the card at an EDC machine.

“The simplicity of this technology will allow us to address the market gap and enable digital payments for an array of untapped categories such as home deliveries, cab services, and small merchants. We believe these innovative and convenient services will drive more customers to use mobile banking. In fact, already we are seeing that more customers adopt mobile banking than internet banking every month” added Sabharwal.


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