IGI Logo

Below is Reaction on RBI Annual Report By Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby

"While the pandemic and increasing internet penetration across India accelerated the demand for digital banking, the need for breaking through untapped markets has compelled traditional banks to go branchless too. This is reflective of the exponential growth that BCs (Business Correspondents) have witnessed, especially in the last two years. While the growth has been marginal throughout the decade -2010 to 2020 - the industry has observed a growth spurt to the tune of 100% in the last year alone.

BCs have effectively been bridging the gap between the banking institutions and the unbanked masses in the hinterlands. Through a robust digital infrastructure coupled with adequate handholding that builds trust and confidence, the BC network is creating access points across semi-urban and rural India for banks to offer a range of financial products that are building the future of banking for the real Bharat. The sharp growth witnessed through the last year across various platforms, inclusive of Points of Sale (PoS) terminals, Micro ATMs, and a huge chunk of the households that transacted digitally during the lockdown can be attributed to the BC network.

Additionally, RBI implementing a geo-tagging framework to provide users with precise locations of existing touchpoints is a great move, eventually inching India towards the larger mission of digitization."

Above views are of the author and not of the website kindly read disclaimer