Building sustainable and viable agent networks in India

• Sep 4, 2025
• 2 min

CICO agents are vital to the growth of digital financial services in India. Yet, they continue to face significant challenges, which include unreliable operations, limited product diversity, weak grievance redress mechanisms, and low representation of women. These issues limit customer satisfaction, reduce agent viability, and constrain financial inclusion at scale.

MSC collaborated with Airtel Payments Bank, FINO Payments Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of India, and Pay1 to design and scale solutions across three strategic pillars. The first focused on expanding the range of products and services, both existing and new, that agents could offer, with a special emphasis on reaching women and rural low-income households. The second improved liquidity management for agents, while the third enhanced grievance resolution practices to strengthen customer experience at service points.

The project applied in-depth behavioral research to develop non-CICO use cases tailored to different customer segments, such as women, gig workers, and contractual factory workers. MSC facilitated workshops to prioritize solutions, support prototype development, pilot test innovations, and develop go-to-market strategies. In parallel, frameworks were deployed to strengthen agent liquidity, streamline grievance handling, and institutionalize service quality improvements.

The engagement has enabled over 100,000 agents, 20% of them women, to offer non-CICO services, and connected more than 2 million new low- and middle-income customers. At least three new non-CICO use cases have been integrated into CICO operations, a credit screening tool has been developed to help lending partners meet the working capital needs of over 100,000 agents, and an efficient grievance resolution mechanism now serves 15,000 BC agents nationwide.

The Gates Foundation commissioned this project.