Imagine opening a bank account through your mobile phone. Or making purchases using your cellphone as a debit card.

If the Hyderabad-based Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) has its way, you will soon be doing this, and more.

The institute has developed a technology - a digital SIM card - that will link your debit card to your mobile phone, and has features like voice authentication and digital signatures.

The trial run of the project will start in April 2006 across all the metros. The new technology enables any operator to provide mobile banking services through your mobile phone, which will be highly secure and user- friendly.

IDRBT is working with leading nationalised and foreign banks on the project. Says IDRBT director Arvind Sharma, "A digital signature of the customer will be loaded into the mobile SIM card, and during transactions, the encrypted digital signature will verify the authenticity of the customers with the bank."

The digital signature encryption also ensures that the information flowing between the banks and users is secure.  IDRBT provides software solutions to banks and financial institutions.

According to industry experts, the new technology will change the face of the Indian banking industry, and in the next few years, mobile phones will provide one-stop solutions for everything.

IDRBT is also working on a project to standardise customer identification codes, as at present, different banks have different digits, ranging form five to 12 digits.