Mohsina Dawood
Zia ul HaqTechnology is seen as the cornerstone of today's rapidly changing world, which is developing at an alarming rate. Technology has permeated every part of our life, as seen by its development and applications. With the introduction of this wonder, practically every industry changed. The financial industry also began making large investments in this technology after realizing its importance. The “evolution of electronic banking that started from the use of automatic teller machines (ATM) and passed through telephone banking, direct bill payment, electronic fund transfer, and the revolutionary mobile banking” was the result of banks automating their operations to meet the ever-increasing demands of their customers and keep up with the technological changes occurring globally (Tam and Oliveira, 2016). Mobile banking was the most significant change that represented a significant departure from traditional banking among the positive innovations brought forth by the banking industry.
We would like to throw light on perceived benefits, perceived risks and continuance intention of using AI based mobile banking applications namely YONO SBI and mPay Delight+ of two Indian banks viz., the State Bank of India and the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, respectively. It provides a fresh perspective for managerial practices to comprehend the crucial elements pertaining to users' desire to stick with mobile banking applications. In a developing market like India, mobile banking still has a long way to go. Since India was a latecomer to the demonetization wave, the Central Government and the nation's financial regulatory body have focused on facilitating an ever-increasing number of cashless transactions. Banks and Financial institutions have been focusing on cashless transactions, and most banks have already released fully secure mobile banking software and applications. Customers believe that using mobile banking is justified when the advantages (like convenience, cost savings, or performance) outweigh the risks (like fraud involving transaction integrity or authenticity, reputational harm, privacy or confidentiality breaches; Chang et al., 2016). Therefore, it is critical to comprehend the benefits and risks of mobile banking from the viewpoint of the user.
Mobile banking is a platform that allows users to access information associated with their bank accounts and conduct financial transactions using a mobile device at any time and from any location. Through the extension of remote correspondence, mobile banking has made it easier to develop and expand commercial transactions. It has also created a wide range of business opportunities by making it easier to trade, acquire goods and services, pay bills, and conduct fund transactions. This advancement has not only improved the bank's operations in terms of staff workload reduction, catering time reduction, digital device use, and customer acquisition, but it has also made customers' daily banking activities more convenient, which is why the industry is moving toward digitalization. The increased demand for mobile banking services has been brought on by the increased use of smartphones. Increased smartphone usage has increased interest in M-banking services, leading nearly all financial institutions to provide this ground-breaking service along with a new suite of goods and apps designed to increase their clientele (Shaikh, 2013). Therefore, the mobile phone has become an essential tool for banking clients' daily tasks.
According to census 2011 data, 68.84% of Indian population resides in rural areas. Nevertheless, it is obvious that despite the rapid use of mobile phones, mobile banking is not as popular among customers as it ought to be. It is important to learn how users react to mobile banking, especially considering the lack of adequate banking services, especially in remote areas, and the periodic interruptions of banking services for a variety of reasons. The biggest obstacle preventing the Indian mobile banking market from improving is user attitude, as users are becoming increasingly concerned about the security and safety of mobile banking, which needs to be addressed to predict an increase in its use. To resolve the concerns, a comprehensive investigation is required to determine the causes of any potential inhibition, hesitation, internet troubles, or ignorance among mobile users regarding the usage of mobile banking in general.
Consumers' intentions to stick with mobile data services can be influenced by elements like perceived enjoyment, social impact, information quality, service quality, technological preparedness and perceived cost (Chen, 2012 and Choi et al., 2011). The “Continuance Intention” construct has been derived from Expectation Confirmation model given by Bhattacherjee (2001). Consumers' propensity to use mobile banking is influenced by their perceptions; therefore, the more highly they value a product or service, the more likely they are to use it. It may be because when the users are highly satisfied by the services of mobile banking application, their continuance intention of using the application would also be positive. Therefore, it is crucial to promote mobile banking's benefits to guarantee its continued growth and use (Baganzi and Lau, 2017). These benefits include convenience, ease of use, security, privacy, control, customization, interactivity so on Alalwan et al. (2016). In this study, the “Perceived benefits” is conceptually like “perceived utility” and “perceived ease of use” concepts, that have been used frequently in existing research, such as Davis's (1989) Technology Acceptance Model. The parallelism resides in the fact that both imply convenience and performance enhancement of a new service over existing ones. Customers evaluate the services offered and select the one that offers the best value.
Perceived risk is a significant aspect in e-banking that indicates a user's intention to continue using a product or service. Real or perceived hazards or challenges related to a product or service, like mobile banking, lead to negative views that deter use (Britton et al., 2019). The “Perceived risks” construct can be traced back to the study of Cunningham (1967), who originally recognized two categories of performance and psychosocial risk and further typified it with six dimensions: performance/functional, financial/economic, opportunity/time, safety/physical, social, and psychological loss. Featherman and Pavlou (2003) found that assessing TAM in e-services was important for privacy risk, overall risk, and Cunningham's (1967) five risks, excluding physical risk. The perceived risks construct has been developed by combining both Featherman and Pavlou's (2003) and Cunningham's (1967) measures of risk. The financial, performance, security/privacy, time and social risk of mobile banking adversely affect its continuance intention to use.
Both the Jammu and Kashmir bank and the State Bank of India are doing their best to deliver better mobile banking services to their customers. But J&K bank needs to work bit harder to improve the efficacy of mPay Delight+, as many mPay Delight+ users are switching to other mobile banking applications rather than continuing with the same. After conducting a structured questionnaire survey on 784 respondents using mPay Delight+ and YONO SBI, it was found that the YONO SBI provides more benefits in comparison to mPay Delight+. User satisfaction is more prominent in case of YONO users than mPay Delight+ users. However, there is a slight difference in perceived risks of both these banking applications. YONO SBI has a larger user base on account of SBI's widespread presence, while mPay Delight+ caters to more geographically specific user base. YONO SBI offers a wide range of banking services, encompassing UPI payments, in addition to other features like investments, travel bookings and insurance. Although, it is primarily established for SBI account holders but allows non-SBI users to make UPI transactions using the application.
Direct stock trading is not available using the mPay Delight Plus mobile banking app. Users would have to use a specific investing portal or get in touch with J&K Bank's financial services branch directly for investment management. The mPay Delight+ app is not used directly for trading stocks, despite offering investing choices. Instead, it makes investing in stocks and other securities simpler by using a new tool called mTrade. The YONO SBI app provides a variety of travel and shopping rewards via its marketplace. Users can receive exclusive deals and earn reward points when they transact with partner retailers. It offers a variety of shopping incentives like YONO coins, SBI Rewardz, exclusive discounts and e-gift certificates available under “Shop and Order” section.
Many mPay Delight+ users reported that while making a simple transaction, giving both transaction personal identification number (TPIN) and mobile personal identification number (MPIN) details, then waiting for one time password (OTP) becomes tedious for users. It adversely affects continuance intention of users and makes them switch to other applications. Therefore, when it comes to mobile banking, engineering managers should put an emphasis on added value and simplicity. Enhancing technology's usability, cutting down on time waste, and speeding up transactions are all examples of the simplicity perspective, which is connected to the added value perspective.
Furthermore, risks perceived by users in terms of poor performance of banking applications on account of servers being down due to ongoing maintenance, fear of losing money due to information leakage, so on affects continuance intention of users. In this regard, banking organizations should focus on improvement in facilitating hassle free service to its customers like minimizing the updating time for applications leading to least interruption of server operations and superior performance. Also, the banks can enhance security measures and develop trust of its users by inducing voice recognition in addition to facial mapping and fingerprint in biometric technology.
To enable user-friendly products, technology providers can concentrate on improving the general user interface (UI) of their solutions. To help project managers, system developers, and human factor engineers, Opaluch and Tsao (1993) provided ten ways to enhance usability engineering. Identifying end users, appointing a UI designer early on, and listing end-user tasks are some of these strategies. Furthermore, by increasing awareness of its features and advantages, mobile banking service providers can encourage users to keep using it. It becomes crucial to be aware of a new technology since its acceptance is preceded by user (organization or individual) knowledge about how simple (easy to use) and valuable the technology is. To achieve the desired goal, internal marketing initiatives should concentrate on encouraging word-of-mouth advertising. This implies that customers must be aware of the advantages and capabilities of mobile banking to support its continuity. Furthermore, as mobile banking has been viewed as a promising element in this field, it is imperative that both the public and commercial sectors support it to assist India in achieving the goal of financial inclusion, thereby contributing to economic development. Mobile banking apps support the government's digital India initiatives by promoting financial inclusion, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring secure transactions. For example, the mPay Delight+ app supports government campaigns like “Digi Dhan Abhiyan” and provides a platform for various government schemes such as PMJJBY and PMSBY.
Author contributions
MD: Writing – original draft, Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing. ZH: Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.
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Keywords: mobile banking, mPay Delight+, perceived benefits, perceived risks, Yono SBI
Citation: Dawood M and Haq Zu (2026) Risks vs. benefits: a case of digital banking applications' usage in India. Front. Hum. Dyn. 7:1721277. doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2025.1721277
Received: 14 October 2025; Revised: 05 December 2025;
Accepted: 22 December 2025; Published: 12 January 2026.
Edited by:
Vineet Chouhan, Nirma University, IndiaCopyright © 2026 Dawood and Haq. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Mohsina Dawood, bW9oc2luYWRhdm9vZEBjdWthc2htaXIuYWMuaW4=