According to a recent World Bank release in November 2021, India is expected to be the largest recipient of remittances globally in 2021 with expected receipt of USD 87 billion. This is expected to grow by 3% in 2022 to USD 89.6 billion as a large number of workers are expected to return to the gulf countries.
The customer segment of Fino Bank at the middle of the pyramid is targeted to families of many of the people working in foreign countries. The money remitted by family members abroad can now be directly withdrawn at the nearest micro-ATM or Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) enabled Fino Bank’s neighbourhood merchant point.
Major Ashish Ahuja, Chief Operating Officer, Fino Payments Bank said, “Continuous product innovation is one of the core pillars of our model. International remittance further enhances our transactions-based product offerings. We will be ready to offer the inward remittance services to our customers by Q1 FY23. In sync with our digital strategy to enhance customer experience, we will also look at having this product on our mobile application as well.”
Fino merchants provide services such as new account opening, cash deposit, money transfer, cash withdrawal via micro-ATMs or AEPS mechanisms, collect cash on behalf of various institutional clients among others. As a new offering International Remittance will help augment income of merchants and the Bank leading to strengthening of Fino’s robust distribution network.
“There is a major inward remittance corridor in states like Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We already have scaled up our merchant presence in all these geographies. We are therefore confident that the new offering will gain traction very quickly. We also expect to shore up more subscription based saving accounts due to this initiative as customers would prefer to park the remitted money in a Fino Bank account itself”, added Mr. Major Ashish Ahuja.
Going forward Fino Bank will be open to partnering with more leading money transfer operators (MTOs) to widen its horizon across different countries. The Bank also has plans to commence outward remittance services soon. Fino Bank’s network of over 8 lakh merchants across the country, as of 30th September 2021, provide immense convenience to access domestic as well as cross border remittances.
In addition to International Remittance, the Bank has in the pipeline various cross sell offerings like mutual funds, loans, fixed deposits and others that are expected to contribute to its bottom line as part of its strategic vision of FY23 and beyond.
About Fino Payments Bank Ltd (www.finobank.com):
Fino Bank is a subsidiary of Fino Paytech Limited (“Fino PayTech”) which had last raised funds in 2017. Fino Paytech is backed by marquee investors like Bharat Petroleum, ICICI group, Blackstone, IFC, Intel and LIC among others. Frugal innovation is the key that has given the fintech a leadership position at the middle of the pyramid which primarily constitutes emerging India customers. It enjoyed a 55% market share in micro-ATMs in FY21. The Mumbai-based fintech operates on an asset light business model that principally relies on fee and commission based income generated from merchant network and strategic commercial relationships.
Fino Bank platform has facilitated more than 435 million transactions with a gross transaction value of Rs 1.33 lakh crore in financial year 2020-21. The fintech bank turned profitable in the fourth quarter of 2019-20 and has been profitable in subsequent quarterly periods. The Bank registered a profit of ₹20.5 crore in 2020-21.
In H1 FY22 the Bank earned revenue of Rs 448.39 crores as against Rs 330.53 crores in H1 FY21. During this period it also registered a Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs 11.02 crores, a 73% increase on H1 FY21 profit.
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