Financial inclusion a viable business model

RELATED NEWS BFSI sector’s IT spend to touch $2.5bn in 2008 5th Annual Skoch BFSI Summit & Exhibit in Mumbai Skoch Consultancy, Red Hat recognize Open Source Tech ALSO READ See latest News about Corporation Ban See previous management interviews See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about Corporation Ban Nifty BSE | NSE 09/02/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty? Other Stocks in this news Punjab National Bank | Vijaya Bank |

Financial inclusion can no longer be treated just as an outreach or social development programme. Today, it is a business model that has shown its viability in places where it has been introduced, both in the rural and urban settings.

 

Stating this here today, Corporation Bank Chairman and Managing Director B Sambamurthy said, "Financial inclusion is of no use if it fails to provide livelihood to the poor." Addressing the 5^th Skoch Summit 2008 on BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) he said that financial inclusion projects have to go beyond experiments and look at fiscal viability and financial literacy also.

 

Echoing his view, J M Garg, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank (PNB), told delegates at the session on 'Financial and Government Applications - Interoperability is key to Inclusion', that "Branchless banking is giving a new meaning to financial inclusion, specially among the rural poor. Today, we have already embarked on the path to upscale the banking sector's role in the rural economy." This is evident from the fact, Mr Garg said, that PNB is targeting 10 crore new bank accounts using the banking correspondent and facilitator model.

 

Inaugurating the summit, Mr T S Vijayan, Chairman, Life Insurance Corporation and Chairman of the Programme Committee, said that there was need for the industry to discover new distribution points and delivery mechanisms to reach the poor. "For this, insurance companies will need to come together as a virtual corporation, offering a combined micro-insurance face.".

 

In the session on 'Enhancing Revenue through Better CRM', Mr PP Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director said that public sector banks in the country were today reworking their strategies, taking into account the increasing need for customer retention in face of cost pressures and increased competition. "Today, centralised operations and process automation, using core banking applications have transformed a customer from being just a branch customer to a bank customer.

 

During the summit, Mr Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & CEO, Skoch, presided over the national premiere of two films on the banking sector - 'The Fast Growing Bank', on Vijaya Bank , and 'Branchless Banking' on Corporation Bank.

 

Other noted speakers at the two-day summit included Prof D P Phatak, IIT-B Mumbai; Mr Bimalendu Chakrabarti, Chairman and Managing Director, New India Assurance Co Ltd; Mr S K Sehgal, General Manager, State Bank of India; Mr Kaza Sudhakar, Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India; Mr H Krishnamurthy, Principal Research Scientist, IISc, Bangalore.  

 

The 5^th Skoch BFSI Summit on June 10-11 in Mumbai saw CEOs and CMDs from the banking, financial and insurance sector, leading IT companies, policy makers, influencers and consultants on a common platform to deliberate and debate on critical issues, identify thrust areas and formulate strategies for the growth of the sector. 

 

Sourced From: Vaishnavi Corporate Communications Pvt Ltd