The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has written to the Ministry of Finance requesting it to push mobile banking services to promote financial inclusion across the country.
According to Rahul Khullar, chairman, TRAI, the regulatory body has approached the Ministry of Finance and pointed out that a system is already in place for delivering mobile banking services. However, it is now up to the banks to take the initiative for delivering and promoting these services. Khullar has stated that 41 per cent of the country?s population and 46 per cent of rural households do not have bank accounts.
Earlier, in November 2013, TRAI had issued guidelines and tariffs on unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)-based mobile banking services. USSD technology can be used for prepaid call-back services, location-based content services and menu-based information services. The TRAI chairman has stated that the guidelines mandate operators to connect with the National Payment Corporation of India (NCPI), which is the nodal agency under the Reserve Bank of India that manages the national payment switch. NCPI is connected to all the banks located across the country.
TRAI has already issued a regulation which mandates operators to provide required connectivity to NPCI for carrying out USSD-based transactions.
