Bhupen, a young chef from Tripura, India, uses mobile apps for remittances, as well as merchant and bill payments. He has grown fond of digital payments after his coworkers in New Delhi introduced him to payment apps. However, he discovered a different situation when he returned home to Tripura during the second wave of COVID-19. He tried to introduce his elderly father to the mobile-based payments ecosystem after seeing him risk infection to make monthly recurring deposit (RD) payments in the post-office. Bhupen and others highlight the digital revolution brewing in rural Indian households. This blog examines how we can replicate this approach beyond India to extend digital financial services to the elderly and make them digitally self-reliant.

Many LMI households in India lack timely access to good quality medical care. Further, steep healthcare bills are deterrents to timely treatment, and out-of-pocket medical expenses have pushed more than 55 million Indians into poverty. Qonect, a HealthTech platform, helps patients connect with medical service providers and provides credit for medical expenses.

Almost 80% of India’s salaried population lives paycheck to paycheck. Many stay trapped in a debt cycle where they borrow to meet their expenses and repay the lender on payday. Flexi Salary’s “Instant Salary” system pays employees each workday, thus eliminating the need to borrow.

Entitled is a startup that works to build a one-stop platform for the financial needs of blue-collar employees in India. With an engine that recommends the right financial product starting from credit and insurance to savings, Entitled handholds customers to achieve their financial goals. The company’s efforts have resulted in a positive impact on its early customers. Read its success story here.

How has the pandemic affected cash and digital payments in India? Which instruments have seen accelerated adoption and which FinTechs have emerged as victors? This report answers these questions through the experiences of three Indian women who navigated 2020 using a diverse range of payment instruments.

How has the pandemic affected Indian FinTechs? What measures have the policymakers taken? Are these measures impactful for FinTechs? What are the investor sentiments for this sector? This report, the first in a series of ongoing Covid-19 research on Indian FinTechs and the Indian FinTech ecosystem by MSC, answers these questions in the current market’s context.

The blog analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 on two major categories of FinTechs—credit and savings FinTechs. We analyze the immediate impact of the pandemic and the ensuing regulatory changes on FinTechs along with some long-term changes in consumer behavior that can have a systemic adverse impact. We close by recommending data-driven measures that credit and savings FinTechs should take today to control and arrest such adverse changes in consumer behavior.