Towards Sustainable Development with the Development of a System for Paying Instant Money Transfer 'e-Withdrawals' Directly into Bank Accounts

Abstract

The rapid growth of technology is changing how businesses operates and how services are being provided to customers. In the financial sector, mobile banking is one of the most promising technologies that has emerged in the recent years and could prove to have considerable value to both banks and customers. Services that are being provided by banks including instant money transfer services to improve customer satisfaction, customer retention, efficiency and convenience. Instant money transfer is a mobile money service that allows for a person-to-person service where people get to send or receive small sums of money to mobile phone users across the globe and have had a tremendous positive impact on people's lives and have contributed to increased financial inclusion and economic growth. The several number of banking services that are being provided by banks including instant money transfer services have come to reality in some sort of progression. First, it became possible to transfer money either through internet banking or mobile app to someone who has a bank account. The money goes straight into the bank account. Then it became a problem that revealing one's banking account details to people could lead to fraud being perpetrated on one's account. There then came the progression of using email address or mobile phone number as point of transferring money. The bank customer can send the money using their bank channel to a receiver, and the receiver receives a notification in a form of an email or a short message service (SMS) entailing the amount and the personal Identification number (PIN) to access the money at the bank. This service differs from bank to bank as some banks attach the transaction to the recipient's cell phone number and other banks use codes. The receiver could use an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of the sender's financial service provider or the partnered merchant to withdraw the money using either their cell phone number or code as well as the PIN to complete the transaction. However, ATMs tend to be out of service and customers having to wait in long queues are among the most commonly experienced problems. Also, money transfer services also pose risks to recipients who receive the money in a form of mobile money transfer as they are required to perform traditional money withdrawal using ATMS, and this method exposes customers to ATM and/or street cash robberies. One should be able to change mind and redirect such money to bank accounts whenever one wishes to or when one fears such ATM and/or street cash robberies. This research focuses on mobile banking to help influence the drive towards the growth of cashless transactions. Thus, this research study addresses the question of how do someone receive instant money via email address or cell phone (avoiding releasing banking details) and still get the money into any of client's bank accounts (avoiding having to go and use ATM machines) thereby helping to influence the drive towards the growth of cashless transactions which could enhance sustainable development by avoiding unnecessary trips to the ATMs while also giving freedom of choice on how to receive the money. This in addition builds and enhance trust in the banking system enhancing future and sustainable use of the banking systems in the society.

Keywords: Electronic banking, mobile banking, online banking, instant money transfer, Sustainable Development