6 Challenges for Mobile Banking Apps in Nepal
January 1, 2020 | DWAIPAYAN REGMI
With the advancement in technology, there has been a rapid rise over the banking scene as a whole. The era of paper-based banking shifted to the database, followed by database banking which then came into Any Branch Banking Service (ABBS). This was a huge revolution in the entire banking field of Nepal. That did not stop there itself – then emerged the concept of Internet Banking. Just before flourishing the trend of Internet Banking, a rapid rise in mobile technology was created which then created the next bunch of opportunities for mobile applications.
Currently, almost all banks have been following F1 Soft’s Mobile Banking App. As a result, there has been an equal level of service flows among all the applications. There seriously require some revisions over the challenges that they have been facing as of now which includes –
Delayed Transaction
Even though there lies a good internet connection, the apps don’t perform smoothly all the time. This could be because of too many customers. The amount will be debited from the concerned account and can take several times for credit in the next account.
Absence of verifying mechanism
Although F1 Soft has introduced this practice of account verification in Esewa, it seems to be lagging way behind in the case of Mobile Applications. Because of this, an account to account transfer is still not preferred through mobile banking applications. There exists confusion in bank account number, and people often get confused with 0 or O, resulting in transaction delay.
Frequent Errors
Sometimes, because of network errors or sometimes because of technical issues – mobile banking has been regularly facing troubles across. Although customers blame the concerned bank, more than software – it has been a major reason why people get scared to use it. Meanwhile, it would take almost a month for the fund to return to the concerned accounts. Customers have to face hectic times during their fund reversal. Timely bugs can be expected too.
Unaware customers
A large bunch of customers has been unaware of the benefits of using Mobile Banking Applications. The customers must be well informed about the benefit of using them for increased usages. But the case does not seem to be effective enough.
Fewer Merchants
A customer can pay their electricity bill, top-up their mobile and book flights – that’s it. While other similar platforms like Esewa or Khalti has a wide range of payment merchants, there are fewer merchants in a mobile banking app. As a result, customers would prefer more other apps than this one.
Competition
Currently, there are competitive firms with similar services. So, if you have Connect IPS, and Esewa – customers won’t require a mobile banking app. This has turned out to be a challenge about how mobile banking will run the business in the long run.
Despite the good factor that they operate with minimal data operation as well as in offline mode, they certainly have huge rooms to operate. One should not load funds to mobile banking and stay away from regular interest here. After all – we are getting into the era of Digital Banking – though gradually!
