Fostering Rural Financial Services through Technology: The Case of FINO PayTech

摘要

Financial Information Network and Operations PayTech Limited (popularly known as FINO) was the first mover in the blue ocean of the financial inclusion business in India. It has been referred to as the world's largest banking agent manager.1 Founded in Mumbai in 2006 with the mission of solving the problem of financial exclusion, FINO entered the market riding on biometric smart card and handheld device technology and has grown exponentially ever since. It has served more than 64 million end customers all across India, adding net one million (average) new customers to the formal financial system every month. While analyzing the annual results and planning for future growth, Mr. Khera (CEO at FINO) claimed "We plan to grow from the current base of 35 million to 100 million customers in the next three years. We will be practically in each part of the country as one single setup architecture which is fully interoperable to all the policy guidelines which come up."2 Although the start had been impressive, the top management felt that going forward would be quite challenging given the business model followed by the company. They realized that FINO could not remain limited to savings and withdrawals activity if it was to reach many more millions of customers. The challenge before Mr. Khera and his team was to position FINO as a multi-product delivery company based on innovative technology in a highly regulatory business environment.