DBS bank is reportedly all set to soft launch its digital/mobile online banking in the country this week, reports BGR.

“We want to do a soft launch this week for digital/mobile online banking in India. The first launch will be with some of our clients,” DBS group chief executive officer (CEO) Piyush Gupta told PTI on the sidelines of “CEO Roundtable on Manufacturing Opportunities in ‘New’ India”. ”We wanted to do (the mobile banking) in one of the big countries. We chose India for its enabling eco-system for electronic payments. The (Indian) enabling architect is so friendly for such launch,” he said, adding that India was chosen after evaluating it along with China and Indonesia.

According to the report, the phase by phase soft launch will be spread across DBS’s locations in 12 Indian cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune, from end of next month. The offline launch will be done in a few months of time. 

Gupta also said that DBS network expansion in India will also include 60-70 new branches on getting approval for setting up wholly-owned subsidiaries from the Reserve Bank of India. ”We hope to get the approval in the coming months. Our agenda is that India should be a bigger part of our business. It is still under less than five per cent of our total group business,” he added in the report.

Gupta stressed that DBS’s strategy is to spend the next couple of years focusing on digital space, especially pointing to the surge in e-commerce among other electronic systems in India. ”Once the wholly-owned subsidiary approval comes, we will start expanding our branch network to about 60-70 branches,” Gupta was quoted in the report as saying.