Augmenting Financial Inclusion through Mobile Phone Using USSD Application

Abstract
The main objective of this project is to provide free banking services through USSD application on a basic mobile phone without use of internet which will be helpful mainly for tribal and hill station people. In Hill station and tribal areas, unavailability of ATM leads people to depend on ‘BC’ persons to transact money from banks. But the BC person visits people only once or twice in a week and people cannot contact them instantly. So the drawback is, those people cannot transact money instantly. Although USSD system exists in some banks, it provides only limited services through USSD in only TRS, while regional languages and IVRS are not available. In proposed system, this USSD code service can be used to access additional banking services through both TRS and IVRS modules. The modules used in proposed system are USSD Code generation Module, Interface Module, Database Repository Module, Transactions Module such as IVRS- Integrated Voice Response System and TRS- Transaction Response System. User’s voice and 25 questions for security and login settings will be registered initially. By accessing the USSD code, people can select their regional language and provide account details, and after few seconds they will get a call from bank asking for password match in voice keyword and to answer any three random questions from the 25 registered questions. The successful login then proceeds to access services. The proposed system is toll free with regional languages options, additional banking services and IVRS facilities. Hence by implementing this system, people can instantly do their money transfer, bill payment, top up and contact BC persons easily. Only mobile phone with GSM network is enough for this application. No internet connection is required. No charges are applicable for the transaction. The BC person’s time for delivering cash is also reduced to 1 day. The regional language service in IVRS will be very useful to hill station and tribal people who contacts only orally and does not have authorized symbols in their language for TRS.
Index Terms:Financial inclusion, USSD application, Business Correspondent (BC) services
I.Introduction
Objective is to provide free financial services using mobile phone through USSD application for hill station people mainly. In Hill station areas, since there is no ATM, people depend only on ‘BC’ persons to transact and withdraw their money from banks [2]. But the BC persons visits people only once or twice in a week and in other days people has to contact BC persons through their area representative. Hill station people cannot transact money instantly [1]. In Existing system, the banks like SBI, ICICI provides only limited services through USSD like balance enquiry, last 5 transactions, top up and fund transfer. Till now USSD codes are used to check mobile phone balance, customer care and other services [3]. This service is available only in TRS facilities. In proposed system, this USSD code service can also be used to access additional banking services through TRS and IVRS [5]. For this service, an account should be created by registering user’s voice and 25 questions with their unique answers for security settings. After registering, by dialing the USSD code hill station people can select their regional language as they don’t know English. After selecting language and providing account details, within few seconds they will get a call from bank asking for password match in voice keyword and to answer any three random questions from that 25 registered question. On successful login, people can proceed to access service otherwise the service will be denied.