State Bank of India to launch mobile wallet, SBI Buddy

India’s largest lender, State Bank of India is slated to launch its mobile wallet, SBI Buddy, on Tuesday, an ET report has said. 

With this, SBI will be entering into the fast-growing mobile wallet business, which already has players like HDFC’s PayZapp, ICICI Bank’s Pocket. 

A report by KPMG and UBS had recently noted that India has the youngest population of mobile banking users in the world, younger than those in the US and Europe. 

The report warned that banks which do not have clear mobile banking strategies may lose customers and cross-sell opportunities in the short-term, as well as risk jeopardizing competitive advantage.

As per the report, banks are increasingly adopting 'mobile first' strategy and large banks are already acquiring technology start-ups to keep up with the rapid pace of change and growth of challenger banks.

"Indian customers demonstrate the highest likelihood of changing banks driven by the availability of better mobile banking services," the report said.

The ET report also said that Axis Bank and YES Bank are also expected to launch their respective mobile wallets soon. 

SBI’s SBI Buddy will be accessible to SBI customers as well as other subscribers. SBI has tied up with several merchants, which means that once the customer opens the Buddy m-banking app, he/she will be able to access the merchant’s app without previously downloading it.