Mobiles can help speed up inclusion banking: KPMG

New technologies that facilitate branchless banking such as mobile phone banking and the internet, if extended properly, can help reach the financial inclusion objectives much faster, says a report by KPMG.

"The financial inclusion project and its focus on enrolling more and more customers provide a large opportunity for mobile banking," KPMG said in a report 'Technology-enabled transformation in banking', released at the ET Banking Technology meet.

"This newly evolved payment channel (mobile banking) will not only provide banks an opportunity to tap new revenue streams but would also aid in reducing overall costs of serving the customers," the report further noted.

The report further says almost 58% companies it contacted already have strategies for handling mobile payments and half of them are at present offering mobile payments services.

Recently a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report had said mobile payment services would touch USD 350 billion by 2015.

Speaking at the meet, Union Bank of India Chairman and Managing Director M V Nair, quoting a recent BCG report said, mobile payments will be the second most used model for banking transaction after the ATMs and will contribute 20-30% of the total banking transaction by 2020. However, this mode of payment today constitutes only 0.1% of total banking transactions in the country.