FINO PayTech’s instant remittance service gains momentum in Maharashtra

More than 2 lakh migrant customers already availing benefit in 5 cities

Pune, May 30, 2014: Raghu Mishra is all smiles on Monday mornings or for that matter any day when he has to send money to his family back home in Bihar. Just before leaving for work he walks into a remittance centre at Prakash Mobile Shop, Kothrud, a centrally located area in Pune, and gets his work done within minutes. At times he even sends money after getting back from work. No hassles, no paperwork, just convenience.

Life was not always so simple for Raghu, who is one of the scores of poor people that migrated to Maharashtra/Pune in search of livelihood. With no access to formal banking services due to his migrant status Raghu is left with Post Office’s money order service and other informal channels to do money transfer.

As a daily wage earner, time and convenience are important for Raghu as he can ill afford to lose a day’s earning. Most of the existing channels aren’t of any help to him and being an illiterate further compound his problems when he has to fill up forms.

All that has changed now, thanks to the technology based instant money transfer service introduced by FINO PayTech Limited, a payments technology company and operator of the largest business correspondent network in the country.

FINO PayTech launched instant remittance service in association with ICICI Bank, a leading private sector bank. Currently, there are over 700merchant points that provide this service to people across Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, and Thane. Customers can do remittance transactions as these points throughout the day unlike some channels that don’t offer this convenience. This is a huge benefit for people like Raghu who can send money through a formal banking channel even after their daily work routine and they are willing to pay for this service. He can walk into any of the 140 merchant points in Pune and send money to his family.

“This service has really made life easy for me as it convenientto transact at almost any time in the day without having to worry about forgoing my wages. As it is linked to a bank my money is safe too. Most importantly my parents back home get instant money and don’t have to wait for a day or two”, says a beaming Raghu.

“Internal migrants in India account for a large population projected at around 350 million. This segment needs fast, reliable, accessible and convenient money transfer service through formal banking channels.As such remittance service is at the core of FINO PayTech’s offerings enabling financial inclusion. Our association with ICICI Bank, coupled with innovative technology platform, network reach and convenience of almost anytime transactions have allowed us to roll out the services across 65 cities in the country. We are encouraged by the response in Maharashtra and are geared up to roll out the service in other parts of the state,” said Ashish Ahuja, Vice President, FINO PayTech Limited.

FINO PayTech’s instant money transfer service has added immense value to our customers. The convenience and affordability of the service enabled our 2 lakh customers in Maharashtra to do over 80000 transactions a month. A throughput of over Rs 35 crore a month is achieved with an average ticket size of Rs 3500 – Rs 4000.

The focus for the current fiscal is on increasing customer transactions at these merchant points. We are looking at 25% increase in the volume of transactions from these centres along with the prospect of expanding the service to a few more cities in Maharashtra,” said SukhbirSahney, Head- Remittance Business, FINOPayTech.

The service has so far attracted around 7 lakh customers Pan India since its launch in 2011,with Maharashtra accounting for about 33% or 2.2 lakh. Many of the customers are migrants from UP, Bihar, West Bengal and interiors of Maharashtra serviced by 300 points in Mumbai, 215 in Thane, 140 in Pune, 8 in Nagpur and 50 in Nashik. In addition to remittance, the company is also offering products such as insurance and pension to the customers through these merchant points.

About FINO PayTech

FINO PayTech is a payments technology solutions provider to banks, MFIs, Government agencies, Insurance firms and enterprises. It enables micro payments through a network of 35000 transaction points across 499 districts in 27 states. FINO PayTech enables sourcing, acquiring and servicing of micro customers at their doorstep. The model is built to offer bouquet of financial products to clients and their customers at affordable prices across channels as compared to traditional infrastructure based delivery models.