Chandran is part of a growing group of Indian consumers who rely on the Internet to transfer funds, among other banking operations. An increasing number of NRIs, especially in the US, Europe and the Gulf, who send money home have made the Internet their medium to get funds across the world in a faster, safer, more efficient manner. So have a large number of students studying abroad, who need finances every semester. With B2B transactions taking place globally, Net-banking gateways set up from customer accounts to company accounts have proved to be the best way to ensure quick payment.

Even within the country, money orders have become a thing of the past as more and more consumers find it easier to bank from the comforts of their own homes.

Most private banks have online banking and money transfer facilities. Public banks aren't far behind either. "The growth of online banking is pretty good with ICICI and HDFC banks and now Corporation Bank is putting together a system of online banking," says Sanjiv Khandelwal, CEO, Ez-comm Trade Technologies Limited, a Web solutions company involved in creating several money transfer and B2B sites, "Now banks are being pushed to deploy IT. In fact, TCS recently got its largest order from the State Bank of India. The more people use Web sites for money transfer and other banking operations, the more familiar they will become with it."

Money transfer facilities on the Net range from sites like SITA Western Union, c2it.com exclusively for US citizens, and Times of Money's Remit2India facility, a tie-up with UTI Bank targeting the NRI population, to services offered by HDFC Bank, HSBC and ICICI Bank that allow fund transfers between accounts, to other account holders at the same bank, and inter-bank transfers. Most of these services are offered to resident Indians as well as NRIs.

The transfer procedure is relatively simple. As an online demonstration shows, all customers have to do is fill in details about their bank account, the account number of the person to whom they want funds transferred and the amount to be transferred. The money is remitted into the desired account with just a few clicks.

Most banks use 128-bit SSL encryption, which provides a high level of security. Besides, individual banks have their own security mechanisms. For instance, HSBC uses data encryption, firewalls and server authentication. Customers are assigned a unique personal banking number and password. In case customers forget to log out, Internet banking sessions are set to 'time out' after a period of inactivity. Additionally, pages automatically expire, ensuring that no one can use the 'back' button or the 'history' option on the browser to view earlier pages. ICICI Bank automatically disables customers' login after five consecutive login failures.

In the light of all these measures, how safe do customers actually feel? "I'm not totally comfortable with transferring huge sums of money online," says Asif Moonim who works with i2 Technologies in Bangalore. "I'm okay about transferring up to Rs 50,000. But my biggest concern would be accountability and/or trackability in the face of any glitches."

Moonim, who regularly transferred funds from one account to another in the US, feels he wouldn't be as much at ease doing so in India. While he feels online banking, especially money transfer, will form an integral part of banking culture in India, he suggests that like any new concept, it might take an incubation period of two or three years.

Chandran, who has used the Net to transfer money to Jamshedpur, says that a bad connection can prove to be a danger. "In Jamshedpur, which operates largely on dial-up and where Net connectivity isn't that great, once you've directed the Net transfer and placed an instruction, the connection could suddenly break. In such a case you wouldn't know what happened to your order. Fortunately though, there hasn't been a mess-up yet."

Chandran rates the ICICI money transfer site as the most savvy in India and he uses it regularly. However, he's found that fund transfer is never immediate, taking at least three hours. The process seems to be quite slow after banking hours: "I've transferred funds at six in the evening only to find the transaction completed at six the next morning," he says.

Identrus is a body of 55 banks worldwide. To iron out problems of money transfer, it is developing a protocol for transfer of large funds. Khandelwal believes that among other things, this will solve the issue of time lags.

Links:
-- SITA Western Union
-- Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
-- C2it.com
-- Remit2India
-- HDFC Bank
-- ICICI Bank

Also Read:
-- All in One: Multiple accounts, One View
-- Not That Easy: Why isn't everyone Net banking?