If technological revolution is at its peak, One of the notable sectors of the economy where technology is at it helm of affairs with respect to customer service is BANKING. Over the years has banking transcended from a traditional brick-and mortar model of customers queuing for services in the banks to modern day banking where banks can reach at any point for their services. In today’s business, technology has been on the predominant indicators of growth and competitiveness. Entry of new banks resulted in a paradigm shift in the ways of banking. The banking industry today is in the midst of an IT revolution. The combination of regulatory and competitive reasons have led to increasing importance of total banking automation in the banking Industry. . Information Technology has basically been used under two different avenues in banking. One is Communication and Connectivity and other is Business Process Reengineering, both basically focusing on increasing its customer reach. Information technology enables sophisticated product development, better market infrastructure, implementation of reliable techniques for control of risks and helps the financial intermediaries to reach geographically distant and diversified markets The latest revolution seems to happen with respect to mobile banking an attempt to leverage on the synergies of mobile banking technology in telecom and information technology in the banking services.Today, Banks have welcomed wireless and mobile technology into their boardroom to offer their customers the freedom of paying bills, planning payments while stuck in traffic jams, to receive updates on the various marketing efforts while present at a party to provide more personal and intimate relationships. Mobile banking can be classified as Push vs. Pull and Transaction vs. Enquiry that is briefly given below:

o Push Based

o Pull Based

o Transaction

Some of the other features where mobile banking has lent its hand are Fund Transfer & Bill Payment where the customers have the freedom of maintaining account through mobile. Mobile banking has also welcomed other financial services likeshare trading. The latest Information technology revolution enables sophisticated Enquiry Based banking services for Credit/Debit Alerts.

Some of the other outcomes of the Revolution in the banking industry are Minimum Balance Alerts, Account Balance Enquiry, Account Statement Enquiry, Cheque Status Enquiry, Cheque Book Requests and Bill Payment Alerts. The last time that technology had a major impact in helping banks service their customers was with the introduction of the Internet banking. However the biggest limitation of Internet banking is the requirement of a PC with an Internet connection, not a big obstacle if we look at the US and the European countries, but definitely a big barrier if we consider most of the developing countries of Asia like China and India. Mobile banking addresses this fundamental limitation of Internet banking, as it reduces the customer

Requirement to just a mobile phone. Mobile usage has seen an explosive growth in most of the Asian economies like India, China and Korea. The main reason that Mobile banking scores over Internet banking is that it enables ‘Anywhere Banking’. Customers now don’t need access to a computer terminal to access their banks, they can now do so on the go – when they are waiting for their bus to work, when they are traveling or when they are waiting for their orders to come through in a restaurant.The scale at which Mobile banking has the potential to grow can be gauged by looking at the pace users are getting mobile in these big Asian economies.

Revolution of Mobile phones in banking services:

According to the Cellular Operators’Association of India (COAI) the mobile subscriber base in India crossed the 50 million mark in October 2005, which stood at 50.87 million. The explosion as most analysts say, the worldwide number of cellular subscribers will surpass 2 billion in 2005—up from 11M in 1990 and 750M in 2000. Worldwide cellular subscribers are forecasted to reach 3.2B by the end of 2010.Among the leaders in mobile technologies, most aggressive being Korea which is now witnessing the roll-out of some of the most advanced services using 3G technologies, like using mobile phones to pay bills in shops and restaurants. The growth of mobile technology over the last few years has enriched the progress of the mobile banking services. Technologies like IVR, SMS, WAP, J2ME, and J2EE & BREW have revolutionized the use the mobile phones in banking services. Though all the above predictions on cellular base, the Use of mobile technology with respect to banking services is at a very infant stage.

There are a lot of challenges and issues relating to content, security, coverage, technology and connectivity speed are to be sorted out with respect to mobile banking technologies.

Objectives of the Report:

1. To study the technological readiness in relation to the challenges faced by the players particularly the banks with respect to mobile banking in order to enhance global competitiveness by embracing technology and banking services.

2. To study and awareness, expectation and acceptance levels of the

Customers with respect to its use and effectiveness

o2 mobile phones