TRAI issues guidelines for mobile banking services

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) Releasing its Mobile Banking Regulations 2012, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Tuesday said the service providers will have to facilitate banks to use SMS and interactive voice response (IVR) to provide banking services to customers.

"The access service providers shall facilitate the banks to use SMS, USSD (unstructured supplementary service data), and IVR to provide banking services to its customers," TRAI said in a statement.

According to the regulations, the response time for delivery of message for mobile banking services generated by the customer or the bank will be within the time frame of less than or equal to 10 seconds for SMS and IVR and less than or equal to 2 seconds USSD.

The regulator has also mandated if SMS sent by the bank is not delivered to the customer due to network or handset related problems, an USSD communication confirming the completion of the transaction should be sent to the customer.

The service providers are also asked to ensure that for availing banking services such as cash deposit, cash withdrawal, money transfer and balance enquiry, the customer is able to complete the transaction in not more than two stage transmission of message in the case of SMS or not more than two stage entry of options in the case of USSD and IVR.

They will also be required to maintain complete and accurate record of the transactions.