FINO and NCR launches Remittance Facility on “FINO NCR EasyPoint 70 – Tijori” Micro Deposit Machines

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

• A micro deposit solution designed and developed to encourage deposits and savings by low income wage earners.
• Added remittance service allows the customer to deposit and remit money in extended hours beyond bank timings

Mumbai, October, 2010: Financial Inclusion Network & Operations (FINO), one of India’s leading Financial Inclusion service provider and NCR Corporation, a global technology company today announced the launch of an added functionality of remittance service to the FINO NCR EasyPoint 70 – ‘Tijori’ micro-deposit-machines (MDMs).

FINO, to scale its services and reach out to more customers, has leveraged its self service platform “Tijori” and deployed micro deposit machines at the business correspondent points to enable customers to deposit and remit money on their own in extended hours beyond bank timings.

FINO Tijori is a self-operated stand alone machine that offers the functionality of account deposit, money transfer, balance enquiry, mini statement and request for loan options. This will bring in small sums of deposits more frequently thus inculcating saving habits in customers besides ensuring convenience of easier remittances.

The launch of remittances via FINO Tijori is an initiative in line with FINO’s philosophy of bringing best in class products and services to the micro-customers in the country in conjunction with banks. FINO has already deployed these machines in Mumbai and Delhi and will be scaling the same up to 100 by October in selected cities. FINO plans to review the learning’s from the 100 deployed machines in the next three months and thereafter would materialise further plans.
The service allows customer to deposit and remit money in extended hours beyond bank timings in a fast and secure environment via a self-service channel. The process requires the remitter to deposit cash in the FINO NCR EP70 – ‘Tijori’ kiosk, inform the beneficiary, who needs to then visit a FINO BC point / his bank branch and withdraw the money.

Manish Khera, CEO – FINO, speaking on this development, said, “FINO is committed to bringing main-stream financial services to the base of pyramid customers. FINO architecture integrates with the mainstream banking infrastructure in the country ensuring security and convenience to customers. Besides including 19 million customers and expanding at 50,000 customers a day and launching several services, we are now expanding the channels beyond agents to self-serve devices like NCR Easy Point ‘Tijori’.

"NCR is pleased to announce with our partner FINO the introduction of an innovative, easy-to-use, and cost effective remittance application, which demonstrates our continued investment in the financial inclusion sector by bringing financial services to the under-banked population of India", said Mr. Scott Sobel, Vice President, Emerging Markets, NCR Corporation. "The addition of a remittance function with NCR EasyPoint 70 – Tijori deployed by FINO or their affiliated banks at FINO branches and merchant locations will allow 19 mn customers on FINOs environment and migrant workers to transfer funds at their convenience and beyond banking hours by using a secure self-service channel."
In India an estimated 10 crore people have migrated from villages to urban cities trying to earn livelihood for their families. These people live in challenging conditions; work in tough environment and save every penny to be able to remit money back to support their families. A typical behaviour is to save money in cash and send home once a quarter in amounts of Rs. 4000-5000. The large majority of these people are unbanked or under-served. Due to the cumbersome processes and limited access to financial services they typically avoid using formal systems. It is estimated that as much as half of the domestic remittances are made through informal channels.

FINO is committed to combat the challenges in delivering financial services to the base of pyramid customers in difficult terrains. The key to addressing this challenge is innovation & commitment to sound business logic built on an architecture that integrates all channels as well as handle the scalability and is flexible to customer needs. FINO architecture offers all these and integrates with the mainstream banking infrastructure in the country ensuring security, affordability and convenience to the customers.

About FINO
FINO is working to achieve total financial inclusion in the country by not only providing a complete technology payments platform but also managing the cash on the field through its agent (Bandhu) network spread across the country. On the front end the FINO platform is working on POT-Card and Mobile infrastructure. The Company has a comprehensive product suite ranging from savings bank accounts, loan products, recurring deposits, remittances, insurance products, government disbursements etc. FINO at present has a customer base of 19.8 million customers and is currently acquiring incrementally over 50,000 customers per day. FINO is doing more than 3 million transactions per month through its network of 10,000 agents spread in 23 states and more than 266 districts in the country

About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business. NCR’s assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of retail, financial, travel, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment, gaming and public sector organizations in more than 100 countries. NCR (www.ncr.com) is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.