Tag: SMS

Finacle Mobile Banking Solution

      Comments Off on Finacle Mobile Banking Solution

With mobile devices becoming integral to people’s lives, banks are seeking to leverage the ubiquity of mobile phones to create a cost-effective distribution channel, rapidly innovate, extend reach across segments and improve convenience and security of use. However, due to consumer concerns regarding security, the adoption of this channel for value-based transactions has been limited. While some consumers prefer browser-based mobile banking, others use applications that can be downloaded to create a rich interface on the handset. Additionally, the diversity of hand held devices presents a unique challenge for banks seeking to optimize services delivery across the gamut of devices and customer segments.

A truly secure mobile banking solution built on open standards, for increased agility and flexibility, can prove invaluable for banks. The solution must also intuitively address the hurdles posed by multiple form factors and access mechanisms in the mobile space.

Finacle mobile banking solution empowers retail and corporate banking customers with access to banking services through SMS, GPRS/ 3G and USSD-enabled handsets, leveraging a single platform. The solution provides a secure, multi-lingual channel for banks to innovate by easily deploying new services with improved time to market. The end user experience thus created is richer and truly convenient.

Finacle mobile banking solution integrates easily with disparate host systems, core banking solutions, payment networks and third-party applications. The solution leverages Infosys mConnect, the indigenously developed middleware, which orchestrates mobile transactions between users’ devices and the Finacle universal banking solution. Infosys mConnect handles the multiplicity of form factors and access mechanisms on multiple devices to provide a context and device independent view to the transaction server. This presents banks with a powerful channel to service customer segments ranging from the mass affluent to the under-banked or unbanked, surmounting the challenge posed by the diversity of mobile devices.

The ubiquity of the platform adequately addresses the challenges of encryption, communication, synchronization, image resizing, downloading and security. This ushers in the advantages of reduced integration by leveraging common interface messages, maintenance and deployment costs.

Customer On-boarding

Finacle mobile banking enables the bank’s existing customers to be directed to use the mobile channel for banking and payment transactions through the following modes:

Mobile banking facility requested by sending SMS request in prescribed format

Registering for mobile banking through the bank’s Internet banking site

Phone banking leveraging the bank’s tele-banking call center

Mobile Banking and Payments

Customers are enabled to perform several financial transactions on their mobile phones using multiple languages and across multiple time zones. The functional capabilities of the solution include:

Account management and requests like balance inquiry, account aggregation (within and with other banks), mini statements, among others

Term deposit and renewal

Funds transfer (self and third-party accounts with multi-currency support)

Local and international payments with support for expedited payments

Bill presentment and payment

Remote deposit capture

Account origination, Forex rates and calculators

Cheque status inquiry, cheque book requests and stop cheque requests

Customer personalization including account setup and marketing preference

Transaction approvals for corporate customers

ATM and bank branch locator

Remittance request, enquiry and statement

Peer-to-peer payments

Business-to-business payments

Contactless payments

Support for administrative tasks like secure mails to relationship manager, approvals, password/ PIN change, block credit/ debit/ ATM card, customer billing, data synchronization and self-audit

Key Modules

Mobile Financial Management

The solution offers unmatched support to manage finances on the move. This helps banking consumers make informed decisions. A comprehensive set of tools is provided to enhance financial management.

Quantitative (such as EMI calculators) and qualitative analysis tools (such as budget vs. spend analysis)

Transaction tagging

Product selectors and comparators

Virtual financial advisory services through video chat on mobile

Alerts

This module empowers customers to subscribe and receive a wide variety of mobile alerts. The solution supports both push and pull alerts along with customizable alerts via integration with Finacle alerts solution. The module also allows the customer to set preferences and limits for alerts and configure ‘do not disturb’ timings.

Value Added Services

Finacle offers a gamut of value added services that provide extended convenience and comfort to the customer. These include:

Mobile commerce

Mobile ticketing

Mobile top-up for prepaid card recharge

Mobile advertising, based on location, user profile and actions

Mobile remittances to charity causes

Mobile wallet

Demat and stock trading services

Security

Finacle mobile banking solution offers state-of-the-art security through optimized measures. The solution offers:

Two factor authentication – PIN encryption

J2ME MIDP 2.0 support for SSL/ TLS

Encryption of data stored on mobile phone

Support for binary XML

Enabling and disabling of mobile numbers

Support for additional authentication mechanism

Business Benefits

Greater Customer Convenience

Finacle mobile banking solution empowers banking customers to make informed decisions by providing them with an invaluable set of financial management tools on the mobile handset. These tools help in quantitative and qualitative analysis, as well as in the selection and comparison of financial products.

Reduced Turnaround Time

Finacle mobile banking solution has a robust integration framework which allows it to function in tandem with disparate host systems, core banking solutions, payment networks and third-party applications. This translates into reduced go-to-market time for the bank as well as support for legacy systems.

Robust Inclusivity Framework

Finacle mobile banking solution leverages Infosys mConnect to smoothly hurdle the challenges posed by the multiplicity of form factors and access mechanisms on multiple devices to provide a context-agnostic view to the transaction server. This enables banks to include, through the mobile channel, its various customer segments, ranging from the HNWI to specific unbanked communities, surmounting the complexities of diverse location and dissimilar mobile devices.

Maximize Innovation

Banks can leverage Finacle solution’s indigenously developed middleware Infosys mConnect, to configure an unlimited palette of services from any channel, to the mobile space, with ease. The need for development of new back end services is precluded due to the availability of a banking solution behind the mobile interface. Finacle also provides the flexibility to deploy services over the existing online banking platform or through a standalone delivery channel interfaced directly with the relevant host systems. This ensures the rapid delivery of a comprehensive range of financial services, embellished with new innovative features, on mobile devices.

Business Benefits

Robust Security

The solution offers extensive application security features like URL encryption, referral URL check and session management to provide a robust security framework. The solution also supports OTP (one time password), which provides a two factor authentication mechanism for users transacting with downloadable mobility client. This enables the bank to offer products that are highly secure and geared to withstand the onslaught of security threats associated with mobile transactions.

Cost Savings

The solution presents banks with the advantages of reduced integration by leveraging common interface messages, maintenance and deployment costs. This translates into significant cost savings without banks having to compromise on features or the range of devices supported. The mobile banking solution is inherently independent of the network service provider, obviating the need to build a business model that involves costs and profits sharing with them.

Customer Delight

Finacle mobile banking solution enables banks to offer the convenience of comprehensive anywhere anytime banking, using GPRS, mobile browser or SMS. It supports a wide range of mobile devices and mobile browsers. Banking customers can query on account balances and make fund transfers. Banks can also proactively send timely information to customers in a completely secure environment, whenever a customer-defined event occurs. The solution’s self-service capabilities empower customers to manage their banking activities better. The solution also addresses data transmission and storage related security concerns adequately, delivering a truly streamlined customer experience.

Precautions about Net Banking

      Comments Off on Precautions about Net Banking

Net Banking has become steadily popular over the past few years. People are using it to shop online, to book rail and air tickets and transfer money across cities and countries. But simultaneously with the increase in the use of net banking the incidents of cyber crimes also have registered a continuous growth. Many times money is transferred illegally from the bank accounts without the knowledge and permission of the owner.

Net Banking is a facility on the internet to operate ones account. To use this facility the customers arrive at the website of the bank where they have got their accounts. By entering a Username and Password they can access their own account and by using yet another password can transfer money in or out of that account. But before using Net Banking it is always necessary to read all the instructions of that particular bank. Guidelines of all banks are not similar and there are minute but important differences. Therefore, it is necessary to read them carefully.

Many people consider the Net Banking like the normal banking. But no, it is very different and one needs to be extra careful. It is necessary to check your internet banking account at regular intervals. The intervals can be every two or three days or at the most one or two weeks. If you do not check your account for a long time, you may not come to know of what is happening to it. If you find any discrepancy, inform the bank authorities at once.

Please note that the banks do not consider them responsible for any thing happening to your account as a result of the activities of the unauthorized operators who are called hackers. Moreover, no insurance is available in this regard. The Banks say that appropriate upgradations are carried out from time to time by their IT departments for risk mitigation. They also issue instructions to the customers to manage their accounts through virtual key boards by way of which the characters typed by them are not identified by the hackers. Many banks send their account holders SMSs regarding any activity taking place at their account. SMS alerts are also an important tool since any transaction carried out on account is reported to the account holder through as SMS.

If you use any website for the purpose of shopping or transferring money, first make inquiries about the reliability of that website. This information can be had from seeing the internet address of the web site or by asking from any computer expert. Make sure that you write down the internet address of that particular site correctly.

Make sure that you use your own computer or lap top for the Net Banking purposes. Never use cyber cafes for net banking. If you had to use some other computer for the purpose of Net Banking, change your password immediately. Moreover, never forget to log out the site you used for Net Banking.

All this care is necessary because the internet frauds are increasing at an alarming rates. In the internet terminology these frauds are known as Phishing. In phishing, a persons personal details are obtained by fraudsters posing as bankers, who float a site similar to that of the persons bank. The customers are asked to provide all personal information about themselves and their account to that website on the pretext of databases upgradation. The number and password are then used to carry out transactions on their behalf without their knowledge. Regular e-mail users might have already noticed subjects or mails with messages such as:” Verify your account”, ” You have won the lottery “, ” if you dont respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed, ” security advisory”, ” 2008 A Category results” and the like. You could even receive an e mail purportedly from your bank, software vendor, or an online portal asking you to update your credit card information. Never respond to such mails and call your bank or vendor to make sure they have asked this information. Make one rule, never respond to such e mails.

Sometimes, the fraudsters indulge in hacking in which personal data is stolen through hacking. Hacking is an act in which the cyber criminal steals information stored or transacted in any computer. Sometimes. A spy ware is installed in the computer to steal the information and gain access to all files. The hacker gets in to the system with the help of spyware and steals information. The hacker is always on the lookout for unsecured systems and files. The spyware usually comes in the form of a virus. This spy transports all files pertaining to bank accounts to the hacker. Therefore, it is advisable not to store much information about your accounts on your computer or e mail which is unsecured. Generally , an accepted method of keeping the hackers at bay is frequently changing passwords. This however is not enough. One should make sure that the net connection is secure. Unsecure Wifi and broadband connections can be misused by professional hackers to obtain confidential details regarding an account. The best way is to operate your account at home or on a personal computer.

There are a few other things you can do. Get the latest version of the Antivirus and Internet security suite. Please dont buy a pirated CD. The anti virus soft wares have the anti phishing filters built in. Moreover, get the latest version of the Internet Explorer and Firefox. Both have an internal anti phishing engine built in to alert you when you are on a site that steals data.

In short, it is always advisable to use the following precautions while using Internet for any kind of transaction involving money.

Net Banking has become steadily popular over the past few years.
But simultaneously with the increase in the use of net banking the incidents of cyber crimes also have registered a continuous growth.
Use your home computer or lap top for the Net Banking.
Never use cyber caf for the Net Banking.
Put password on your computer as well and also the screen saver password.
Check your account regularly.
Install a good fire wall in your computer. It would make hacking difficult.
Always log out after using net banking.
Never reveal password to anyone. Do not even write it on a piece of paper or diary. Just memorize it. It should be alphanumeric. Change it frequently.
Never reply to queries from bank online about account or personal details.
The personal information should not be kept in a public computer or in e-mails.
Before using Net Banking it is necessary to read all the instruction of the bank.
Use the SMS alerts facility of the bank as any transaction carried out on the account is reported to the account holder through SMS.
If you use any website for the purpose of shopping or transferring money, first make inquiries about the reliability of that website. ( The End)
By: Iqbal Amrohi