By Francis Chan

USING your mobile phone for banking was once laughed off as a novelty by the industry but it is now becoming an important service, with more banks introducing mobile banking.

Citi held a soft launch last week, rolling out mobile banking to existing customers. It follows a similar move by Standard Chartered Bank in January.

Citi and StanChart join OCBC Bank, which introduced its version of banking on-the-go in 2006.

The service was well-received by OCBC customers at the time, but other banks were sceptical, especially after United Overseas Bank, DBS and even Citi hung up their versions due to low demand between 2001 and 2005.

But the game-changer has been a more robust 3G mobile phone network that better supports data transfers.

Infocomm Development Authority figures show that Singapore has a mobile-phone penetration rate of 134.6 per cent, meaning a ratio of more than one mobile phone per person.

The official figures also indicate that there are more than 6.5 million mobile phone subscribers here, with more than 2.7 million using 3G services.

'The rapid adoption of data plan subscriptions and Web-enabled smartphones in Singapore has fuelled the interest and appetite for mobile banking,' said Citi's director of e-business, Mr Daniel Li.

StanChart's general manager for retail banking, Mr Dennis Khoo, agrees, citing official statistics that show that 33 per cent of consumers here own Web- and multimedia-enabled mobile phones.

'The popularity and wider acceptance of online banking is also reflected in the 33 per cent year-on-year increase we see in our customer base who signed up for online banking,' said Mr Khoo.

Although the three banks declined to reveal the actual number of users for their mobile banking services, he said StanChart's mobile banking customer base more than doubled from the launch in January to last month.

Mr Li hopes to get half of Citi's Internet banking customers to use its mobile banking services within two years. He also said the early number of mobile banking users was 'encouraging' despite the lack of extensive marketing of the service.

OCBC, which had a three-year headstart over its rivals, continues to be the market leader.

Mr Patrick Chew, head of delivery at OCBC Bank, told The Straits Times that since 2006, the number of customers who have signed up for the service has grown more than 1,300 per cent.

'The transaction volume and transaction value conducted over mobile banking have also grown 1,400 per cent and 2,200 per cent respectively since 2006,' he said.

'We attribute these encouraging numbers to the number of savvy users.'

He added that when it was first launched, professionals, managers, executives and businessmen, or PMEBs, made up most of OCBC's mobile banking users but, these days, he sees a different trend.

'We now see a shift in demographics of our users to a wider user group... In fact, our youngest customer is 17 years old and the oldest is 67,' he added.

Access to the service is also becoming easier. For example, to use StanChart and Citi's system, customers do not even need to enrol for the service or download any software into their mobile phones.

And aside from transferring funds, paying bills, checking account balances and share trading, customers can top up ez-link cards, conduct electronic share payments and access Central Provident Fund data, said OCBC.

Citi customers can search by cuisine type or location to identify the best dining deals offered with its credit cards, as well as the latest promotions and offers.

'In the not-too-distant future, we foresee that perhaps all you may need when you leave your home is your mobile phone. There are tremendous development opportunities and the sky is really the limit,' said Mr Li.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.