Mobile OTP: Cyanide Or Caffeine For Online Payments?

I recently received an SMS from one of my credit card issuing banks informing me about the following change in procedure for using its credit cards online: With immediate effect, for each online transaction on your BANK1 Credit Card, an OTP (One Time Password) will be sent via SMS to your registered mobile number. In … Read more

High NIM Propels Indian Banks Into FORTUNE 500

The fragmented state of the banking industry and, arguably, the relatively conservative policies of the Indian banking regulator Reserve Bank of India, have kept the assets of Indian banks somewhat subdued compared to their global peers. Not surprisingly, league tables of the global banking industry that use asset as the benchmark to rank banks, have … Read more

Five Ways to Stimulate Electronic Payments (Hint: Discouraging Cheques Is Not One Of Them)

The number of times the words “should” and “charge” appear in this article titled “RBI WANTS TO DISCOURAGE USE OF CHEQUES” got me wondering if “negative reinforcement” is seen as the only way to wean people away from their time-worn habit of using cheques and move them to electronic payments. For the uninitiated, RBI, or … Read more

Even If Customers Don’t Bother About Costs, Regulators Do

My recent post The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models sparked a lively debate and attracted several comments and 1-on-1 feedback about whether customers care about costs or not. Some people believe that buyers are only interested in the value they receive from a product and are least bothered about how much it costs a manufacturer to produce … Read more

QR Codes Are 110X More Effective Than Banner Ads – When Done Right

In our past articles (click here and here), we took QR codes for granted wherever we found them and focused on their underlying technology, shared tips on how to get them right and suggested a few goals for after they scanned correctly. For a quick recap, QR codes enable smartphone users to visit websites and landing pages, download … Read more

Retail Bank Sees Strong Uplift In Online Customer Acquisition

Here’s our latest success story: Retail Bank Sees Strong Uplift In Online Customer Acquisition CRO boosts conversion of website visitors to customers Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the fastest growing and most admired financial institutions in India. Since its inception as a nonbanking financial company in 1985 and as a bank in 2003, the … Read more