Mobile banking based money order for India Post: Feasible model and assessing demand potential

Mobile banking is the evolutionary step after Internet banking where the banks can collaborate with other entities to offer the latest in banking services in variety of business domains. The remittance of Indian Postal Money Order at present requires the person to visit nearest post office branch, fill up money order form for sending to recipient. The present postal money order lacks in efficiency due to slow delivery, high commission charges, and inconvenience to customers as they require visiting the post office during business hours on working days and many more. The India post had been the oldest and prime source of money transfer for the migrant people and serving personnel employed away from their homes such as migrant workers. This provides the opportunities for banks and India Post to utilize the existing setup and resources to integrate the money remittance through cost effective means of technology such as mobile banking. Although some initiative has been taken to start mobile money transfer services in India but their adoption has remained modest. This study examines the feasible model of mobile banking based money order by integrating India Post with banking sectors and find out the factors that drive and inhibit the demand potentials for such services. The study has identified certain factors for demand of mobile money order for deploying the mobile money order, which can provide an opportunity to Banks and India Post to accelerate business growth. The results are interesting and useful for all the parties concerned. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB)