There is a piece of good news for bank account holders, who are not happy with the efficiency of their bank but are unable to leave it for reasons best known to them. The bank with which they are holding accounts for several years is not technologically sound and does not have significant investment in robust IT infrastructure, which may impair them transactionally. But, now that is the matter of the past, as bank interoperability is in place and is gaining traction. Customers of such weak banks can now get registered with strong banks that offer interoperability services and take advantage.

ICICI Bank has taken the lead in offering interoperability in bank accounts and as a result, more than 10 lakh bank account holders of other banks have come into its fold. Going by the encouraging response received by this unique initiative, ICICI Bank anticipates that the number of users is likely to double in two months.

To start using ‘iMobile Pay’, customers of any bank can link their bank account with the app, generate a UPI ID and start paying to any UPI ID or merchants, pay bills, do online recharges, and transfer money to any bank account, a payment app, and digital wallet. Also, they can open a savings account, apply for a home loan or credit card among other banking services of ICICI Bank.

Bijith Bhaskar, Head (Digital Channels & Partnership), ICICI Bank said, “These innovations have played a key role in transforming the way digital India banks. We introduced the country’s first banking app, ‘iMobile’, in 2008. Three months ago, we transformed the app, which was called ‘iMobile’ into ‘iMobile Pay’. The objective of this endeavour was to offer customers of any bank, the benefits of seamless payments and digital banking services through our app leveraging NPCI’s interoperable infrastructure.”

Users like the ‘Pay to Contacts’ feature most. The functionality enables users to send money either to a mobile number or a UPI ID of their friends/contacts, to any payment app or a digital wallet. Therefore, it provides users significant convenience as they can easily transfer money across payment apps and digital wallets, compared to the existing practice wherein users are required to use a particular app to send money to a recipient using that app.