Role of Technology in Driving Financial Inclusion
The banking sector has made rapid strides largely because of the swift advancement in technology. Automated teller machines, internet and mobile banking, payment wallets, and other advancements have brought in significant improvements in consumer experience and have also helped banks widen their reach.
RBI has been actively involved in harnessing technology for the development of the Indian banking sector over the years. The apex bank took upon the task of promoting computerisation in banking to improve customer services, book keeping and management information system (MIS) to enhance productivity. RBI has played a pivotal role in achieving various objectives such as implementation of the electronic payment system such as RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), electronic funds transfer (NEFT), mobile banking system etc.
Adoption of the Core Banking Solutions (CBS): CBS is networking of branches, which enables customers to operate their accounts and avail of banking services from any branch of the bank on CBS network, regardless of where the customer maintains his/her account.
Mobile Phone Penetration
Leveraging mobile phone penetration and mobile phone service, providers are introducing innovative methods of bringing the unbanked populations into the formal economy using mobile phones.
India has witnessed rapid growth in mobile adoption and today more than 70 per cent of the population owns a mobile phone.
The extensive reach of mobile phones offers an innovative low-cost channel to expand the reach of banking and payment services especially to the large section of rural mobile subscribers.
It has advantages over traditional banking methods because it breaks down geographical constraints.
Other advantages include immediacy, security and efficiency.
Mobile banking also reduces the cost of financial transactions as it involves little or no infrastructure cost to the bank and no additional investment from the customers.
Government Initiative for Inclusive Growth
Financial inclusion is likely to remain high on the government’s agenda over the next decade. Over the last several years, many initiatives have been progressively launched.
Digital India
The Digital India initiative, coupled with a payment infrastructure, is laying the cornerstone for a digital economy, keeping in mind the increasing willingness of people to use the internet and the rising data traffic in the country.
The impact of Digital India by 2019:
An investment of $18.4 billion to provide last mile internet connectivity, better access to government services, and development of IT skills
Provision of Wi-Fi services in cities with a population of more than one million, as well as major tourist centres
Provision of broadband internet access to 250,000 village clusters by 2019 at a cost of about $5.9 billion
Availability of digital lockers to each citizen, allowing them to store all their original identification documents and records
Development of 100 smart cities in India
Focus on moving towards automation in delivery of government services
Achievement of a leadership position in IT towards betterment of health, education and banking services
Widened internet access and an enabled use of shareable private space on a public cloud model in order to empower citizens digitally
Aadhaar Card
The technology-levered Aadhaar programme is likely to be the biggest disruptor in financial inclusion delivery, as innovations leveraging the Aadhaar card are expected to assist in broad-basing the access and acceptance by financially excluded segments.
Direct Benefits Transfer
The scheme was initiated to facilitate disbursements of government entitlements such as those under the social security pension scheme, handicapped old age pension scheme, etc., of any central or state government bodies, using Aadhaar and authentication thereof, as supported by UIDAI.
As the market has been exposed to innovative digital-based services that have been disruptive in nature, it is now betting on changing client preferences to move from pricing (discounts)...
Retail Banking
The provision of these services is expected to encourage electronic retail payments and facilitate inter-operability across banks in a safe and secured manner.
Payment Banks
Payments banks are a new model of banks conceptualised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).The main objective of payments bank is to widen the spread of payment and financial services to small business, low-income households, migrant labour workforce in secured technology-driven environment in remote areas of country.
They can raise deposits of up to Rs 1 lakh, and pay interest on these balances just like a savings bank account does
They can enable transfers and remittances through a mobile phone at low cost
They can offer services such as automatic payments of bills, and purchases in cashless, cheque less transactions through a phone
They can issue debit cards and ATM cards usable on ATM networks of all banks
They cannot lend money and issue credit cards
Digitisation Trends and Opportunities
Consumer behaviour is changing towards rapid adoption of digitisation
As the market has been exposed to innovative digital-based services that have been disruptive in nature (e-commerce players and e-governance services), it is now betting on changing client preferences to move from pricing (discounts) to convenience and service.
Demographic dividend is likely to create a large digital-savvy customer segment
India’s demographic dividend is well suited to switch to digital behaviour, considering that the median age of an Indian is expected to be 29 years by 2020, with 900 million of the population falling in the age group of 15–60 years by 2025.
The banking sector has made rapid strides largely because of the swift advancement in technology...(that) have made significant improvements in consumer experience and have also helped banks widen their reach.
As the market has been exposed to innovative digital-based services that have been disruptive in nature, it is now betting on changing client preferences to move from pricing (discounts)...