Mobile banking not popular in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: The Centre may encourage people to go cashless, but a study undertaken by the research development wing of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana found that while nearly 50% of the respondents own smartphones in non-metro areas, only 11 per cent were engaged in mobile banking.
The study conducted a few months ago in Chittoor, Gudupalli, Kuppam, Mahbubnagar and Gadwal showed how the usage of mobile banking is directly proportional to annual income level. People with annual income of more than Rs 1.5 lakh used mobile banking.
The study found out that although 42 per cent of the people interviewed accessed internet, only 11 per cent were found to be using mobile banking. The study attributed three reasons to the low usage of mobile banking, the major being lack of awareness. Nearly half of the respondents said that they did not know that mobile banking option was valuable and another 59 per cent did not know how to use it. Another reason was ‘mindset’, where they found it easier to visit a bank and do a transaction.
Almost 82 out of the 91 users of mobile internet downloaded at least one application from the internet and the average number of applications downloaded were 16. The study found that nearly 42% of respondents used their mobiles for music while a high 34% use it as a tool to gather news. “The most important use of mobile banking is to check balance in the account rather than to transfer money. While only 50% have used mobile banking to transfer money, 95% have used it to check balance in their accounts,” the study said.