Future Now: Bank On Your Wrist

<p><em>At-a-glance banking ease on smartwatches is here</em><br><br>When you have banking on the smartphone, it’s only natural that it should make its way over to the smartwatch. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi made a reference, in his Digital India speech announcing government initiatives, that banks would one day not just be paperless but premise-less. Currency too would shed its paper guise.<br><br>Choosing “Digital India Week,” the government’s awareness week for planning and kicking off projects, HDFC Bank launched an app for the Apple Watch or its “watchbanking” service. For busy people who are multitasking and in too much of a rush to keep pulling out their phones, the smartwatch will come to the rescue with glanceable information and quick actions. In fact, the Apple Watch hasn’t yet arrived in India and there aren’t even likely to be huge numbers of users for the watch app. But HDFC Bank is pretty clear about being ready for more digital times. “The Apple Watch should be in India very soon now and we’re also waiting for it,” Nitin Chugh, head of Digital Banking at HDFC Bank told me, “When Apple first made their watch we decided right then that we would also be in this space.” Apparently HDFC Bank selected the Apple Watch because they felt it was built “from the ground up” and because it would give their own app a better chance of evolving with a ground-up understanding of what features customers need most.<br>&nbsp;</p><table style="width: 200px;" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" align="right"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/mala-bhargava-mdm.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 1px; float: right;"></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Mala Bhargava</strong></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The bank also plans for an Android watch app very soon, which of course is only sensible, Android being the more common platform on mobiles in India.<br><br>The WatchBanking app will let customers check the status of their account – or accounts, if they have several, make up to 10 transactions, order checkbooks, make bill payments and recharges, request statements, and more banking basics. The app will also tell the user where the nearest ATMs are and allow for a quick reporting of a lost card, without having to key in numbers. The watch app can be launched from the mobile banking app and shares its security framework, according to HDFC Bank which is confident of how securely the watch app will work. The Apple Watch of course, can be passcode or fingerprint-protected and on top of that, there’s a pin the customer can set for the watch app. The watch app is tied to the smartphone and can’t be used independently of it.<br><br>It was in 2014 that HDFC Bank launched its “Go Digital” campaign, encouraging customers to consider digital ways of accessing their services. And the bank has many other undisclosed digital plans. Nitin Chugh said HDFC Bank believed strongly in moving everything to devices in the near future, including the idea of going paperless.<br><br>ICICI Bank has launched its apps for both Apple and Android watches in April earlier this year. “iWear” as it is called is available on the stores though it doesn’t enjoy a very high rating. On Android, users have complained about difficulty logging in and alerts saying actions can’t be performed. Users also feel there aren’t enough options though it also allows for bill payments, recharge, account information and basic transactions. Checking the last three transactions and other similar info can be accessed as with the HDFC Bank app. More features are to be added as usage increases.<br><br>With the digital push in the country, wrist banking has every chance of becoming an everyday thing, just as mobile banking has begun to, for people on the go.</p>