Forbes India Awards FINO Start-Up of the Year

While India as a country is going through the phase of “Emerging India” there are still a lot of areas where technology has not been fully used to serve any basic needs. Especially in the case of the underlooked and underdeveloped regions where people do not even get their basic financial requirements.

This is where Manish Khera came along the way to serve these people who are in desperate requirement of financial assistance as most of the popular financial institutions do overlook these sections of the society in India. India is a massive country with 26 states and most of the popular financial institutions do not cater to even half of the country’s population who are living under the low-income bracket. With the advancement of technology in all services, however, things are looking upward.  

Even though Indian banking services are well on their way to more growth in the coming years, unbanked persons are still struggling to get proper access to its services. So using mobile tech is the new smart way through which banking services can be spread out to the common people within 26 states of the country.

Serving different people in society can be the main aspect of any financial service; however, in India, most of the common low-income people do not have this service for their requirements. These unbanked persons will require the help of digital technologies like digital transactions as through this process they can connect and get help from any financial service. 

The FINO financial services here have become one of the primary services that are trying to bridge this gap. The company is trying to reach out to all the clients who live below the poverty line as minor laborers, betel-leaf sellers (paan-wallahs), maids, and rickshaw pullers.

These sections of people in Indian society rarely make out a day of living with their meager earnings and they do not have any understanding of the insurance plans. With the launch of FINO Paytech services the CEO of the company Manish Khera is trying to reach out to these sections of the people but firstly have a look at the starting procedure of this financial service.  

Beginning of the FINO Paytech Journey

The entire starting-up procedure of FINO Paytech service goes back to the Director of this service Rajeev Arora who met people from poor financial backgrounds from all over the country like applying behavioral insights inside Latin American financial institutions. He certainly felt the need of serving these populations who do not have any idea regarding their future savings like fifty-eight percent of Indian women report difficulty accessing credit savings or jobs because of their gender.

After encountering a panipuri wallah in Maharashtra he realized the overall importance of financial service for these people who trusts a chit fund service rather than a deposit account in FINO service. They need to divert their attention to a deposit account in a financial institution service rather than a chit fund which is not safe at all. Here are some of the reasons why this FINO financial service was initiated for these low-income people in India. 

• The main objective of initiating the FINO services in India is to divert all the low-income people in the country like a laborer to start saving funds in bank accounts.
• In certain rural areas transferring funds can be a hazardous process as the FINO financial services do offer solutions in this case with its electronic transaction process.
• FINO financial services can also offer various types of loans to all the low-income population of the country.  
• Making the common people understand that insurance plans are also one of the main priorities of FINO financial services. 

Even though some other alternatives are present in a country like India which helps out in these areas FINO is the only option that provides everything under one roof as this service can also be termed as a financial superstore. It is also important for the service to not only open a bank account for all the marginalized people in society as it is not enough. They also prioritize giving insurance plans and loans to these groups of people. By using the latest mobile technologies FINO financial services are trying to do that with a lot more reach to common people. 

What is the Current Condition of the Financial Services in India?

Financial services in any country do not only comprise banking sectors as a lot of non-banking institutions and insurance companies are also part of it. Now in terms of the current financial condition of the country, India has seen a lot of benefits from its various cross-utilization channels as these are increasing the reach of financial services. 

Apart from these increased channels, there also has been an emergence of various gold investment services. In certain sections of society, there has been a constant rise in the income of people which developed the need for more financial services. The overall condition of the investment sectors is supposed to grow more than $1 trillion by the next decade or so.  Along with this the rapid increase of mobile internet services and financial services have now got a major platform for reaching out to the common public in the country. 

In the current day and age, there are varied options for financial services Muthoot Finance, Chit funds, Manappuarm Gold, and so on. As the services have been increasing the time has come to spread it out to the bottom of the line of the pyramid. 

The Requirements of Common People in India in terms of Savings Accounts, Loans, and Insurances

Indian middle-class people have the option of savings as the banks do offer them loans however in the case of low-income sections of society they do not have that kind of knowledge about insurance plans and loans. Are commercial banks ready to serve the base of the pyramid?

These people will rather live out each day with their bare earnings rather than deposit them in a savings account. The absence of well-regulated banking channels is also some of the major issues that the common Indian people face. Here are some of the major requirements of these low-income people in India in terms of their financial position in society. 

Financial Inclusion

In the case of reaching out to the low-income section of society, financial inclusion is required especially in the case of India where there are 26 states. The financial requirements of the common section of the country do require the help of financial institutions as FINO financial services do offer a resolution. As more than half of the population of India is suffering from inadequate knowledge of financial insurance FINO Paytech services and other financial services can get them a cover-up on this matter. 

The main objective of FINO financial services is to let more common people borrow and use financial services and funds. With more reach of these financial services, half of the population can be served for their overall financial requirements in case of any of their medical emergencies and so on. Understanding the importance of a savings account is also another goal for using these financial services as more people will get to know about the benefits of these services. 

Offering Loans to Varied Sections of the Society

Even though India as an overall country is growing as an emerging country there is a huge gap between the financial condition of various groups of people in the society. The overall pay disparity and financial gap between the rich and poor are even more in a place like India as the options for verified loans are limited especially in the case of minority people like laborers and rickshaw pullers.

This is where a financial service like FINO Paytech service can offer them a great deal for their financial requirements. Half of the population in India do suffer from financial disparity compared to the rich people in society. In this case, a financial service like FINO can reach out to varied sections of society.  

Reaching Out to the Bottom of the Value Chain

With the help of FINO financial services, all the low-income people in Indian society can be persuaded into opening up a deposit account. In this way, these people can save a lot of funds for future investments. It is important for a country like India that a lot of financial institutions can reach out to the bottom of the value chain as most of these bottom sections of people do not get the financial facilities.
Thus FINO financial services can help them out with their financial requirements. Most of these people from this section need more options for finance and savings as they need to gain common knowledge about insurance and savings accounts for their future usage. With the help of these financial services like FINO, a lot of these issues can be easily solved which is not possible without this service.    

Opening Up Savings Accounts for Low-Income Section of the Society  

One of the main goals of opening up the FINO financial service is to open up more savings accounts for common low-income people in Indian society and tap into the potential of the unbanked in drc. It is a major issue and a requirement for common low-income bases like the paan wallahs and rickshaw pullers of the society. As most of these sections of people do have these common issues that are still prevalent in Indian society they need to get these financial services for meeting their essential requirements.    

How Can FINO Help the Common People With Various Financial Needs?

Just to clarify the fact about FINO financial services even though like a bank it offers people the ability to use and borrow or save funds it is not a banking service. This mobile tech service can be used smartly for the financial assistance of common people. 

• The FINO Paytech services can help common people to borrow and save funds for their financial requirements. However, it can not be termed a banking service as it is more of a financial institution that can help the lower-income strata of society to save funds and open up a deposit account for their financial requirements. 
• This financial service can help out clients like rickshaw pullers, laborers, betel-leaf sellers (paan wallahs), maids, and so on. The other banking services do not cover these sections of the crowd as FINO financial services do try to reach out to these people. The main objective here is to give them financial services and the knowledge of savings so that their future can be better.  
• FINO financial services do try to clear out the misunderstanding that poor people do not have the capability to save money. With financial assistance like loans and insurance, FINO was able to reach out to the common section of society where these people can save even after spending their day’s worth of living.   
• The other way FINO financial services is helping out this common section of the audience is by providing them with a great platform where they can truly invest rather than a chit-fund service where they have the risk of losing funds. By investing in FINO financial services these people can have the perfect platform for saving funds where they will not have any kind of risk of losing it. 
• One of the main goals of launching FINO financial service is to make these sections of Indian society like panipuri wallahs, laborers, and so on start using the electronic transaction process. By making them enter into the field of digital transaction process this service can lay the ground for their digital transformation process. 
• For most of these people like maids and laborers it is important that they should start believing in saving money digitally. In this way, they can adapt to the current digital transformation process in which India as a country is making rapid progress. FINO financial service is specifically launched for the digital knowledge of these common people as they should also start saving and using money digitally as this can make their saving process much more error-free.    
• FINO service is also initiated for the creation of a financial supermarket for the low strata of society even though there have been a lot of services which are there already like Muthoot Finance and so on. FINO tries to bring out all the services like funding, saving, insurance, and loans under one roof for all these common sections of society. 
• By using the latest mobile technology FINO is trying to reach out even more to the low-income section of Indian society. As most of these people do have the accessibility to a mobile phone by going digital FINO services can be easily accessed by anyone from anywhere. 
• The main intention of FINO was to give proper knowledge to these people about saving as most of them used to process in an informal way like evidence favoring the embedded education from Zambia. Through FINO financial service all these people can have the knowledge of a proper way of saving funds as this service gives them an option of well-regulated channels of banking that was not accessible to this section of people in society.  
• There are certain populations in a society where earnings are not good but they somehow manage to fall above the poverty line set by the Indian government. For this section of people who are earning between 90000-200000 per year required the assistance of this FINO financial service as they are just a notch off the pre-proposed poverty line set out by the government.   
• Just because this section of society falls under the bottom part of the value chain a lot of the conventional banking systems can not reach them. So a lot of these services are majorly missed by this section of the population. This is where FINO financial service is there to help in this matter so that a lot of this financial assistance can be laid out to these sections of society. 

What are the Differences Between FINO and Other Financial Services?

FINO services have actually started its journey as a technology provider as now it has acquired the position of a proper financial inclusion service. This is where this service is very different from other banking services, especially in a country like India where more than 75% of the population do have banking accounts but do not get quality services due to Jan Dhan. Here are some of the basic differences between FINO and other financial banking services. 

• A lot of the other financial banking services in India are majorly for the people who are in a certain financial condition as a lot of the people who are under the poverty line can not access these services. FINO financial service on the other hand targets a specific section of people who have a certain range of income like 1.5- 6 lakh per year. 
• The other main difference between FINO and other banking services is that the other services majorly offer transactional banking whereas FINO on the other hand can offer relationship banking. In this case, it can be said that transactional banking can hardly make any kind of money whereas relationship banking is more than the transactional process of banking.    
• In addition to the lack of service accessibility the other banking services also suffer from the lack of quality as FINO aims to better its services for all the overlooked people in society. With its superior service to other banking services, FINO is trying to reach out to more populations in a country like India. 
• In addition to this FINO also offers a doorstep banking process whereas on the other hand the other banking services the users have to wait for a couple of hours for any kind of transaction to progress.  
• FINO also offers its users a current banking account and also various insurance products which are not common for other payment bank services in the country. 
• FINO financial services also provide its users with a range of activities like account opening, issuing a debit card, and saving funds as all of these can be done in a much quicker way than other payment banking services. With just giving 6-8 minutes anyone can open an account which is not possible in the case of any other payment banking services. 
• With its digital way of working strategy, FINO financial services are expected to grow even more than other payment banking services. Its customer base has grown a lot in the last five years where it has come from 6 million to now almost 60 million.
• With more than 400 branches currently, the service is expected to grow even more in the coming years as it can cross the number of 1000 in the next two to three years. So the accessibility of this service for most of these sections of the population is also supposedly bigger than the numbers in other banking services.   

With more service providers FINO services can be spread out even more to this specific section of the population. As this section of the population is largely ignored by other banking services in the country FINO financial services can give them this financial accessibility which is not possible in the case of others.  

The Overall Working Process of FINO Financial Service

The overall working process of FINO financial service can range from various types of banking-related activities like opening an account, cash deposit, electronic fund transaction, and so on. Many customers can also withdraw their funds by using micro-ATMs and other kinds of AEPS. Through this FINO financial service, a lot of the people who are just above the poverty line can save up some amounts of funds rather than investing in a chit fund which can be risky for their future. 

With the electronic transaction process, more people can get access to mobile technology as this process can be much more time-saving than the conventional banking process. By focusing on a particular range of income groups FINO can give support to paan wallahs, panipuri wallahs, and so on as they can get the proper knowledge about savings and their future and other kinds of insurance plans which is not possible in other banking services.

FINO as a financial service wants to give financial services and assurance to these groups of people with the help of its mobile tech as it is the smart way of proceeding with the business.

Even though there are already a lot of financial services like Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Gold FINO with its varied services like saving, funding, loans, and insurance plans offers almost a financial supermarket chain for the bottom section of the value chain of the Indian society. With more than half of the people who are just above the below poverty line not getting any financial help from other services FINO with its varied assistance is looking forward to catering more to these people. 

While India as a country is growing to be more digital-friendly the FINO financial service is the way to look forward to for most of the common people. With more digital transactions the company is looking forward to more growth in the coming days as the customer base is increasing day by day. The overall increase rate of online transactions is a clear point through which it can be said that FINO financial services are here to stay for the long run.    

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. When did Fino Payments Bank start?

The services of FINO Payment Bank were initiated in the year 2007, 23rd June. The main objective of this service was to provide financial assistance to a large section of the population who are avoided by the other banking services due to their standing outside of the below poverty line. Through this way, any panipuri wallah or a maid can get access to financial assistance like savings, opening up an account, loans, and so on. 

Q2. What is the new name of Fino Bank?

The Fino Payments Bank was initially known as Fino Fintech Limited; it changed its name in the year 2017. The FINO Bank is part of FINO PayTech Limited as the overall company was initiated in the year of 2006. The main goal of FINO bank was to give access to common strata of people to open an account and save money for their future purposes. 

Q3. How many Fino banks are there in India?

There are more than 400 branches of Fino Banks in all 22 states of India. It is expected to grow even more in the coming years as it can cross the number of 1000 in the next three to four years. In this case, the accessibility of these banking services is supposed to grow even more than the other banking services in India.   

Final Thoughts

As India is moving forward to more digital age it can be a huge challenge for financial institutions to cover the population of informal savings and move them into well-regulated channels. Especially for the population who are earning between 90000-200000, it is difficult for them as they fall outside of the BPL line and do not get any financial assistance and services from other sectors.

This is where the FINO Banks can be the viable option for them as its main goal is to deliver quality services, loans, and insurance to this section of the population in India. With more than 90 million potential customer base the COO of the service Khera is looking forward to achieving benchmarking progress towards financial inclusion through the FINO banking services.