By Harsha Jethnani

BANKING on the move using mobile devices is a trend that is well on its way towards breaking out of its niche status, according to OCBC Bank.

The bank believes mobile banking is fast becoming mainstream and is poised for exponential growth.

OCBC's head of delivery Patrick Chew said mobile banking customers are no longer only professionals, the technologically savvy or those who are better educated.

These customers now come from all walks of life, he said.

Affordable data plans and the proliferation of smart, mobile devices 'will give the mainstream push' to adopting this type of technology, Mr Chew added.

OCBC's mobile banking user base has been doubling every year from 2006, which is 'a good sign', said Mr Chew.

Citibank is also upbeat about the technology and hopes to have one in 10 customers on mobile banking by the year end, said director of e-business Daniel Li.

Customers have begun to turn to mobile banking for a broader base of banking functions.

Mr Chew said customers do not merely check their account balances - they actively manage their cash while on the go.

For instance, OCBC customers use their mobile banking facility to make contributions to their supplementary retirement schemes and pay their bills.

Customers can set specific dates for automated payment of their bills. The use of this function shot up 226 per cent last month from the same month a year earlier.

OCBC intends to continue enhancing its features. Redeeming credit card rewards will not involve waiting for vouchers to come in the mail: In the works is a mobile banking feature that will enable the instant redemption of points. Those points can be immediately spent, Mr Chew said.

Citibank intends to build its applications around cellphone-specific features such as the global positioning system technology, said Mr Li.

Based on a trial conducted involving the use of mobile devices as credit cards, the bank will focus its efforts on using mobile banking to make payments, he said.

The bank is also looking into bridging the gap between its SMS and mobile banking to make the two seamless.

Mr Chew believes that more banks will come on board the mobile banking wagon from as soon as next month.

OCBC currently dominates the mobile banking market which both Citibank and Standard Chartered entered last year.

Other banks such as DBS Bank may soon follow suit.

Mr Sandeep Lal, managing director and head of DBS consumer e-business, said: 'We are in an advanced stage of implementing our mBanking service in Singapore and we intend to lead in the mBanking space too.'

Already, 30 per cent of OCBC's Internet banking customers are on mobile banking.

In two years, Citibank's Mr Li hopes to have half of his Internet banking customers on mobile banking.

With mobile banking, Mr Chew said, 'you have the bank in your pocket'.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.