Innovative Solutions for Delivering Financial Services to Grassroot Women Entrepreneurs in India: A Case Study of FINSERIN-Bank Partnership Model
摘要
In India, access to finance is a big challenge for women micro-entrepreneurs, in the missing middle segment. This segment is characterized by a high degree of informality, undocumented income proofs, lower literacy levels, inadequate collaterals, uneven cashflows, cash transactions, etc. These issues coupled with the perception of high-risk deter banks/Financial Institutions (FIs) leading to the exclusion. The current case study is about (1) how Finserin Online Services Private Limited (FINSERIN) grabbed the opportunity to address the capital needs through its unique business model that was considered economically and operationally non-viable by most of the formal institutions and (2) how the FinTech IT platform, Finserin Loan Management System (FILMS), paved the way for the financial inclusion of these targeted ‘missing middle’ women entrepreneurs. Further, building and ramping up the entrepreneurs’ credit score enables them access loans of higher ticket size and at cheaper interest rates from formal financial institutions. FINSERIN has adopted the Fintech Digital Life Cycle (FDLC) to deliver its services, which is the adapted version of traditional Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM). Finserin used the hybrid ‘Phygital’ model to implement the FDLC, having a physical presence through its branches, leveraging Information Technology, and enhancing the productivity and efficiency at each link of the loan cycle. The Business Correspondent (BC) is a collaborative approach where, the financial capital is provided by the bank, while FINSERIN undertakes full responsibility of delivering and servicing credit. Thus, a win–win FinTech-Bank partnership model emerged.