One lakh BPL Women Financially Empowered through Innovative Banking Products in UP

FINO takes UBI’s recurring deposit product to villages, over 20 lakh rural women to benefit in UP, MP & Bihar by 2016

March 07, 2014: Varanasi, UP: Financial empowerment is gradually gaining momentum among rural women in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, thanks to Reserve Bank of India’s push for financial inclusion and efforts of banks. Union Bank of India (UBI) and FINO PayTech, India’s largest alternate delivery channel, acknowledged the role of women in financial inclusionon the eve of International Women’s Day. These poor rural women displayed great faith in the banking system and enrolled for the innovative recurring deposit (RD) product introduced by UBI, paving way for others to follow suit.

Keeping in mind the needs and aspirations of the rural customers, UBIdeveloped the innovative RD savings product and introduced it in rural villages of UP through its business correspondent (BC) partner FINO PayTech. Since the launch in 2011, almost a lakh of customers, all of them being women, have enrolled for RD savings in Eastern UP.

What attracted and encouraged them to save in RD is the minimum amount of Rs25 on a weekly basis, collected by a bank agent from their house or place of work. At the end of 52 weeks, customers get back their maturity amount which they can use either for their personal expenses or invest back in their business.

Explaining the importance of RD as a savings instrument, Vipr Bhardwaj, Vice President, FINO PayTech said, “Such innovative, simple and customized products from banks are the need of the hour that help poor people save for a rainy day and at the same time keep away from debts and money lenders. Most importantly, women are being empowered and are at the forefront of improving the quality of their lives. If about one lakh people in few districts of UP can save around Rs 11 crore, imagine the potential to save if the poor across all districts had access to innovative products like RD.”

“It is really encouraging to see women take advantage of RD product to improve the quality of their family’s lives. The acceptance of RD product contradicts the popular belief that poor people do not have money to save or do not understand the importance of savings”, added Bhardwaj.

UBI has been doing commendable work in the financial inclusion space through its progressive thinking, product innovation and deployment of BC channels like FINO PayTech has been instrumental in taken financial inclusion to the next level. UBI has been a torchbearer introducing simple financial products to the rural masses like Savings, Remittance, RD, Overdraft and Credit through the Joint Liability Group model.

FINO offers RD in the following 10 districts of UP – Allahabad, Ambedakar Nagar, Azamgarh, Bhadohi, Chandauli, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Mau and Varanasi. In addition to UP, FINO launched UBI’s RD in MP too. In both the states, over 1.8 lakh customers have availed of RD product and saved a cumulative amount of over 21 crore! Not a small amount by any standards.

The encouraging response among rural population in UP & MP has set the stage ready for a larger scope for RD as well as other savings, insurance and investment products suitable to the rural market.

FINO plans to touch about 20 lakh lives by 2016 and offer them customized committed liability and asset products through banks across UP, MP and Bihar. The efforts will poor rural customers, agents and banks, but most importantly will pave the way for a change in age old mind set and savings behavior.

About FINO PayTech

FINO PayTech is a pioneering product innovation company that introduced biometric smart card based technology that gave impetus to RBI’s financial inclusion efforts since 2006. FINO PayTech also operates the country’s largest business correspondent (BC) network through FINO Fintech Foundation, its BC arm. It has presence across 499 districts in 26 states, servicing over 70 million customers of various financial institutions through 33000 transaction points. FINO PayTech enables sourcing, acquiring and servicing of micro customers on behalf of financial institutions at their doorstep. The model is built to offer bouquet of products to clients and their customers at affordable prices across channels as compared to traditional infrastructure based delivery models. (www.finopaytech.com)