NCR & FINO partner to overcome barriers to Fin Inclusion

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NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), world leader in self-service technologies today unveiled a white paper on Financial Inclusion titled - 'Bringing Financial Services to the Masses', written by Frost & Sullivan. The White Paper identifies self-service as the foremost scalable and sustainable solutions to help overcome the barriers to financial inclusion. To address the issues indentified in the research paper, NCR Corporation has partnered with Financial Information Network & Operations Ltd (FINO), to launch the FINO & NCR EasyPoint 70 Tijori, an innovative micro deposit solution, with smartcard and biometrics technology that will enable Banks and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) to scale their services, to reach more unbanked people across India.

 

FINO & NCR EasyPoint 70 Tijori is a micro deposit solution designed and developed to encourage deposits and savings by low income wage earners that enables the creation of credit profile and subsequent access to micro-credit and other financial services. As low income wage earners are able to create credit profiles, Banks and Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) gain greater levels of confidence, and offer more financial services. The EasyPoint 70 Tijori solution can then be used to provide other financial and information services including bill payment, insurance, remittance, and eGov services at convenient locations such as retail outlets. 

 

As part of the partnership, FINO has committed to deploy 1,000 FINO & NCR EasyPoint 70 Tijori machines and has also reached an accord for subsequent roll-outs of 30,000 more machines in the next five years, which will enable Fino to meet its commitment of reaching 25 million unbanked people by 2011.

 

The roll out of the solution follows a joint pilot project between FINO and NCR to assess the feasibility, and consumer acceptance, of the FINO & NCR EasyPoint 70 Tijori. Installed in multiple retail locations in Mumbai and targeting a diverse profile of users, the pilot revealed that business agents can reach many more people through the solution.  Each machine can be used by 500 people and a business agent can manage three machines, resulting in vastly more people accessing financial services compared with an agent only model.  90 percent of new users and 93.3 percent of repeat users of the solution found the textual, voice, and video instructions easy to use. Almost everyone who used the device (96.9 percent) said it saved them time and 75 percent felt that their money was as safe as depositing directly in a bank. Taking into account the ease-of-use, safety of funds; 81 percent said they would prefer to use the machine over an agent model.

 

Sharing his views on NCR's latest initiative to facilitate Financial Inclusion, Mr. Pradeep Sen, NCR's Managing Director for India, said, "FINO & NCR EasyPoint 70  Tijori is the result of NCR's market leadership in self service and expertise in the financial and retail industries, and FINO's experience and leadership in the micro-banking sector. In India, NCR is leading the way to the next generation of customer interactions and is proactively investing in prod­ucts, solutions, and partnerships to realize the vision of providing formal and organized banking services to the mass­es."

 

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Manish Khera, Chief Executive officer, FINO said, "We are proud to have partnered with NCR Corporation to extend our platform capabilities and reach for our customers. One of the possible means of increasing financial inclusion is through the deployment of self-service technologies, which are commercially viable and can help in overcoming the hurdles previously linked with this space. We are confident that the FINO & NCR EasyPoint 70 Tijori will increase the value proposition for our 5 million existing and growing customer base."

 

Sharing his views on the conclusion drawn from the White Paper, Mr. Scott Sobel, NCR's vice president of business development and government affairs said, "The size of the unbanked population is too large and spread across too vast a geography for it to be properly served by conventional channels alone. Self-service technology solutions are essential to address the scalability and sustainability challenges facing Financial Inclusion in India and other developing countries. With this premise in mind, we are pleased to announce our partnership with FINO to develop new innovative solutions and delivery channels that bring financial services to the masses - helping millions of people lift themselves out of poverty."

 

The White Paper reveals that the Business Correspondent (BC) model in India has built a strong foundation for microfinance, whereby an agent personally travels within a wide geographical area to deliver financial services.  However, the 'doorstep banking' model has limitations of scale as well as security. The findings of the White Paper highlight that Self-Service technology can not only improve conventional delivery channel, such as the BC model by adding new levels of security, but can also become a direct channel for delivering financial services.

 

The World Bank estimates that more than 45% of the 6.5 billion world population does not have access to a formal source of banking or financial services. In India alone it is estimated that 560 million people (about 51% of India's population) is financially underserved. Despite these challenges, India has a growing domestic demand and aspiration to be an economic power. However, India's continued success and growth depends on taking steps to ensure that the social and economic development is inclusive. NCR is focused on delivering tech­nology that is easy-to-use and that meets market, customer, and user requirements.  

 

Sourced From: Perfect Relations Limited