This research aims to provide market information to financial institutions on over-indebtedness in order to help them develop client protection strategies. The information can also help financial institutions protect their biggest asset, their loan portfolio, from delinquency.
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Why E/M-Banking Will Soon Reach Scale in India (An Optimistic View)
India has a huge opportunity to leverage the potential of e/m-banking and build a cash-light economy. This paper assesses whether e/m-banking will reach sustainable scale in India.
Financial Inclusion through E/M-Banking – The Regulatory Landscape in India
Over the years, the financial and banking sector in India has been opened up slowly, but substantially, with a view to promoting financial inclusion. This Note examines the current state of regulation on m-banking in India and concludes that it is already a largely enabling environment for bank-led models. It is not restrictive regulations that are at the core of slow off take of mobile banking services (especially for the low income segments), but the absence of a strong value proposition for the customer.
In addition, most banks and BCs are still struggling with the basics of their business models, and thus have not been able to scale up operations. Over the years, RBI has clearly shown its intention to open up and relax regulations when the industry shows signs of stability and a promise to grow. It is for the banks to harness the potential of BCs and BFs to the fullest extent possible under the existing regulatory framework and then ask for more concessions or guidance from the RBI where these are necessary.
Beyond Remittances: How to Expand Your Mobile Money Product Suite
Remittance is the most common entry point for mobile money systems as it not only addresses significant pain points for customers but also builds trust in the system. However offering only remittance – the star product – is rarely sufficient. Expanding the product suite to offer other services and products is essential. Providers need to look beyond remittances both to drive profitability of mobile money systems and to cater to the huge unmet financial needs of the masses. However, it would be a mistake to assume that clients are essentially homogenous.
Lessons from CSMs: Customer Perspectives
This Note focuses on feedback received from customers on the product offering, customer service, and the processes involved in m-banking, all important aspects of product acceptance and usage.
The information in this Note was collected during several Customer and Channel Satisfaction Measurement and Management (CSM) exercises with Eko India Financial Services (Eko), a business correspondent network manager (BCNM) for State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank in Delhi and Bihar, over an 18-month period. Based on the CSM feedback, Eko has now taken significant, yet often simple, steps to augment customer satisfaction, such as the introduction of new services and an improved back-end MIS to improve transaction confirmation, amongst others.
Financial Education – Time for a Rethink?
Traditional financial education both in poor and rich contexts have taken a didactic, class-room based approach to conveying analytical financial concepts like budgeting, saving, managing debt, and calculating interest rates. This Note makes the case that it is time to re-think the process of financial education to merge it with product marketing, thus making it more relevant for customers and more cost-effective for financial institutions. It is clearly time to test the efficacy of alternative, experiential, product-focused financial education interventions compared to traditional financial education training.