Day 2 & Beyond | Financial Inclusion & Supply Chain Financing at GFF

Perspectives from Arun Kumar and Narasimhan C .

The Altimetrik team decided that our Day 2 focus at Global Fintech Fest will be Financial Inclusion and Supply chain Financing. After all, the rubber meets the road moment for technology only arises when the business impact is obvious.

Reimagining Credit and Financial Inclusion: Innovations and Policy Perspectives with Mr. Neelkanth Mishra (Chief Economist – Axis Bank) and Ms. Ashima Goyal (Professor – Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research) was the first pitstop. Mr. Mishra opines that digitisation reduces transaction time, increase formalization and increases tax revenues. Ms. Ashima adds that cheaper credit, increased women workforce participation and making the country safer for women to work are force multipliers.

The panel discussion Driving Financial Inclusion in the Country: Triad of DPI, Bank and Fintech, hosted by Ms. Noopur Chaturvedi (CEO, NPCI Bharat Bill Payment Systems Ltd.), focused on what financial inclusion means and the opportunities ahead. The verdict is clear. Financial inclusion is not about accounts opened, but impact created and dreams fulfilled. MSME lending is a huge white space, supply chain financing is key and lenders cannot ask for collateral all the time. One panellist mentioned that BBPS for Business launched a day earlier is a great first step?(it feels wonderful to hear rapid market validation of a product that Altimetrik has been closely associated with).

In Leveraging Technology and Innovation for Growth of Mutual Fund industry, panellists highlighted the need for easy end-to-end process experience in transacting with mutual funds. They acknowledge the inherent risks that technology introduces in the digitization of the MF experience (authorization, authentication, impersonation-related frauds, & lack of user awareness), and the need for improving the overall trust.

The panel discussion on Supply Chain Financing?focused on the inherent challenges in supply chain financing including the multi-tiered nature of supplier networks, diminishing trust and the lack of reliable data. The role of technology in bridging the data gap and building easily accessible credit worthy data was highlighted, along with a call-out to leverage TREDS as a platform for receivables discounting.

As we reached the day’s end, it is time for new product launches:

• User Level Programmability of CBDC blows your mind. Digital currency can now be programmed to be used for select merchant categories, geographical locations, merchant addresses and within set times; this will ensure that the money you lend can never get misused
• UPI ATM offers the ability for customers to deposit and withdraw cash in ATMs via UPI and not require cards?
• NPS Payment via BBPS enables payment of National Pension Scheme (NPS) contribution through the BBPS network, and complements the conventional NACH-based option in use today
• Rebranding of BBPS: With BBPS evolving beyond bills and payments, it will henceforth be called as Bharat Connect – connecting customers, businesses, banks and FinTechs?

?We wrapped the day with the Bharat Connect for Business Master Class where participants witnessed the platform offering first-hand and understood its benefits.

The blueprint for the next decade of finance is truly ahead of us. Its realisation requires the convergence of an ecosystem of financial institutions, lenders, regulators, borrowers and consumers – and amply powered by technology. Altimetrians returned from the conference enthused about the possibilities and energized by our potential contribution to Digital India.

May this be a decade of inclusion and impact.

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