FINO PayTech

FINO PayTech Limited is an Indian financial inclusion solutions and services company, formed in 2006. It is promoted by 24 Public and Private sector banks including the ICICI Bank, and insurance companies like the Life Insurance Corporation of India, ICICI Lombard and ICICI Prudential. It is also promoted by the International Finance Corporation in India.^[1] The company offers technology IP (Intellectual Property) and services to enable financial Information. The company serves its client companies through invention, innovation and implementation of integrated biometric or smart card technology for institutions like banks, microfinance institutions, government entities, insurance companies to enable financially inclusive environment for the micro customers especially in rural areas.^[2] The company is mainly run by its wide network of Bandhus or business correspondents across the country who are mostly the local people appointed by the company. These agents are equipped with GPRS enabled hand-held biometric devices that reads the Smart Card information with the clients and hence the financial transactions are done in an easy, accessible and cheap way. Its key areas of operation is to provide branch-less banking and insurance infrastructure, and assisting government schemes through its technology and agent network. Today FINO PayTech, with its systematic and technological services, plays a key role in developing branchless banking infrastructure in India.^[3][4]

History

FINO PayTech was started with 17 people who were working with ICICI Bank during 2006. FINO PayTech was founded on July 13, 2006 starting off with the development of technological services and products that served to enable Financial Information. Headquartered in Mumbai, FINO PayTech employs over 2500 employees and has 20,000 business correspondent agents spread across 239 offices.^[3] With over 60 million customer base across 460 districts across 26 states, FINO PayTech delivers financial products and services including banking, insurance and remittances to rural as well as urban areas through over 45000 transaction points.^[3][5]

Ownership

The company is promoted and owned by various public and private financial institutions including ICICI Bank (19%), Intel Capital and IFC (15% each), Life Insurance Corporation (8%) and a few Indian public sector banks (22% together). In 2011, Avendus Capital and Blackstone Group^[6] bought a minority stake of INR 70 Crore^[7] and 150 Crore^[8] respectively in the company.

Lines of business

FINO PayTech enables end-to-end customer sourcing and servicing and meets the financial needs of un-served and underserved customers through low-cost payment technology and extensive services delivery channel.

Technology

FINO has developed a low cost technology in-house for customer acquisition and servicing and for monitoring the large distribution operations.^[9] Current tech support encompasses both hardware and software solutions.^[10]

Business correspondent services

FINO PayTech provides business correspondent services through its subsidiary, FINO Fintech Foundation. Its field force consists of 48,000+ Business Correspondents, spread across 482 districts of India^[11] to provide a bouquet of financial services like savings, remittance, insurance, lending to micro-transactional customers.^[9] Currently, it has the largest network of Business Correspondents in India.^[12]

Financial literacy

FINO PayTech has partnered with World Bank, International Finance Corporation(IFC), NABARD and UNDP to impart various financial literacy initiatives on field. These programs focus on imparting money management practices for budgeting, spending and saving through different teaching tools.^[13]

Consultancy services

FINO as a branchless banking consultant facilitates designing of financial products, and branchless and micro-banking delivery channels to bring more people under the ambit of financial inclusion to various international entities across nations through its consultancy arm, FINO PayTech Consultancy Services (FCS). Till date, it has provided consultancy to national governments, central banks, commercial and cooperative banks, microfinance institutions, insurance companies and not-for-profit institutions.^[9]

Corporate social responsibility

The Company is working in the field of Rural Sector and carrying on multiple tasks on Financial Information, it has aligned its business with the motive of corporate's responsibility towards Inclusive growth, hence most of its activities could come under the ambit of Corporate Social Responsibility. It also plays an important role in implementing the CSR strategies of its various clients such as ICICI Bank,^[14] ICICI Lombard,^[15] Dena Bank^[16] and others.

Awards and recognition

• Young Global Leader Award by World Economic Forum ^[17]
• Award for Technical Innovation in Implementation of RSBY Program & Financial Inclusion space by Sankalp – Intellecap Forum in 2011^[18][19]
• Skoch Financial Inclusion Award by Skoch Foundation in 2011 for its delivery channel in financial inclusion space^[20]

See also

• Financial Inclusion
• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
• Microfinance
• Bottom of the pyramid
• Identity Management
• Reserve Bank of India
• NBFC & MFI in India
• ICICI Bank
• Eko India Financial Services

References

External links

• Official website