Paperless transactions, including retail electronic transactions such as ECS (electronic clearing system) debits and credits, electronic fund transfer, card transactions, mobile transactions and prepaid instruments surpassed paper-based transactions in February 2015, according to a report issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), indiatimes.com reports.
These are essentially retail customer transactions. Other interbank and financial market transactions are electronically settled through channels such as RTGS (real time gross settlement), among others. While bill recipients and merchandise vendors are incentivising online transactions by offering cash discounts, banks are discouraging paper-based transactions by restricting supplies of free cheque leaves.
The countrys largest lender State Bank of India has a majority of transactions settled through paperless channels. SBI processes around 69% of daily transactions through alternative channels, including internet, ATM and mobile banking, according to Sunil Srivastava, deputy managing director (corporate strategy and new businesses), State Bank of India.
Mobile wallet transaction is among the fastest growing paperless transaction, of all the other alternative payment methods. Now, the mobile wallet user base is about 10 million customers, who are transacting on wallets, which is expected to grow to 100 million by 2020.
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