Why Indian banks need to be extra nice to their less tech-savvy customers

In the past year, more than 600 Indian banks moved $2.5 trillion, or 80 per cent of gross domestic product, between customer accounts. All these transactions originated on smartphones, with people paying a mobile number, or settling bills by scanning QR codes.

It’s surprising, therefore, that India, one of the biggest global successes of instant money transfers, would want to punish its lenders for being a tad too successful at promoting technology. “Banks shall assign an additional 5 per cent run-off factor for retail deposits which are enabled with internet and mobile banking,” the monetary authority said in a circular last week on liquidity standards.