Financial Services Reviews

http://egov.eletsonline.com/2013/10/enhancing-financial-inclusion-in-india/

Anurag Jain Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services Ministry of Finance, Government of India

-Government has issued detailed strategy and guidelines on Financial Inclusion, advising banks to open branches in all habitations of 5,000 or more population in underbanked districts and 10,000 or more population in other districts,- says Anurag Jain. In Conversation with Nayana Singh.

Today Financial Inclusion is a key focus area for the Government of India. Tell us about the work that you are doing for promoting Financial Inclusion in the country? We need to develop policies and systems for proving basic financial services like insurance, banking and the related facilities to all sections of society. It is well known today that the expansion of the banking and insurance networks are being planned very aggressively. RBI and similarly IRDA have already come up with guidelines that enable certain kind of branches to be opened without any permission. In the ministries last budget speech, the Hon’ble Finance Minister had set a very aggressive target for opening up of new branch offices for banking and insurance verticals. Another major step that we have taken is to map the entire country into zones that are not being adequately serviced by the banking industry. In such areas, other systems, like the Banking Correspondents model, are being developed to provide banking related services. In 2006, RBI permitted banks to use the services of intermediaries for providing financial and banking services through the use of Business Facilitators (BFs) and Business Correspondents (BCs). Business Correspondents act as retail agents of the banks in providing banking services at locations other than a bank branch/ATM. BCs and the BC Agents (BCAs) represent the bank concerned and enable a bank to expand its outreach and offer limited range of banking services at low cost, particularly where setting up a brick and mortar branch is not viable. BCs as agents of the banks, thus, are an integral part of the business strategy for achieving greater financial inclusion.

Financial Inclusion

Banks play a key role in implementation of DBT and this involves four important steps: Opening of accounts of all beneficiaries Seeding of bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers and uploading on the NPCI mapper Undertaking funds transfer using the National Automated Clearing House – Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (NACH-APBS) Strengthening of banking infrastructure to enable beneficiary to withdraw money Financial Inclusion

What kind of impact are the initiatives taken by the Finance Ministry having in the rural areas? Please tell us about the challenges that you face in bringing Financial Inclusion in the country. The challenges will always be there, but we are working to bring improvements. It is only a matter of time before we are able to reach out to every corner of the country. The point is that if you look at from the point of viability, then it becomes obvious that the brick and mortar kind of branches will not be financially viable in the sparsely populated rural areas. Therefore we need to come up with innovative approaches like Ultra Small Branches (USBs) and the BC model. Opening a brick and mortar kind of branch, even if it is of minimum staff strength, will cost lot of money, so we have to rely on the USBs and the BCs. You see an USB can work very effectively with only one employee and an affiliated BC. Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) are also allowed to open branches in Tier 2 to Tier 6 centres (with population up to 99,999 as per Census 2001) without the need to take permission from the Reserve Bank in each case, subject to reporting, provided they fulfil certain conditions. The challenges that we face are being overcome by use of new technology. Today BCs can share data by using small hand held devices. This enables us to reduce cost, while providing timely services in remote areas.

The government has come up with the ambitious Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. What kind of impact do you see DBT having on Financial Inclusion? DBT will definitely serve as an incentive for the people to open bank accounts. After all, there can’t be any DBT if people do not have bank accounts. In some places, where banking facility was not available, people had accounts in post offices or primary cooperative society. Now many of these institutions are not on CBS, so you can’t make transfer of funds. The postal departments are now having an aggressive programme for computerisation; once that happens they will be able to support DBT. Many cooperative banks are also developing the CBS platform. You see, the DBT will force players in the financial space to upgrade their technologies and that will be beneficial from the angle of financial inclusion as then these institutions will be able to deliver many more financial services.

What is the roadmap for implementing DBT in every government department? The DBT programme was rolled out on January 1 this year, beginning with 43 districts and expanding to 121 districts from July one. Transfer of LPG subsidy through DBT was rolled out from June 1 and now covers 20 districts. In LPG, over 2.8 million DBT transactions valued at `116 crore have taken place in seven weeks. The thing is that when people talk about DBT they usually mean Aadhaar linked transfers. Unfortunately in many districts Aadhaar is yet to be generated. The Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme is currently under implementation. In this case the districts have been selected on basis of their success in enrolling the population for Aadhaar. The districts were the Aadhaar generation is highest have been taken up for DBTL. As of now this is working quite well. Once we have sizeable Aadhaar enrolment in all the districts, DBT will become the norm. The bulk of the work in DBT at the moment is in digitization of databases, re-engineering government processes for automating financial transactions, enrolling in Aadhaar and ensuring that every recipient has bank accounts seeded with Aadhaar.

ATMs have become very popular in the urban areas. Do you see the scope of using ATMs for improving access to financial services in rural areas? ATM can provide the 24X7 services, and so it is very important. In rural areas, we have issues about the timing of the bank branches. Normally the branches operate from 9 AM to 6 PM, but villagers normally want services early in the morning or late evening. It is also true that you can’t have bank branch everywhere. So ATMs are important as they will allow the citizens to access their funds in banks whenever they wish. The Finance Ministry has now asked state-run banks to expedite installing ATMs in rural areas.

Ministry of Finance has started the scheme to install White Label ATMs. What kind of progress is being made in that area? The banking space has seen considerable growth through the ATMs, (approximately 87000 ATMs at present) but the same has been restricted principally to the urban/metro areas. Last year, the Reserve Bank of India, had allowed corporates to set up white label ATMs to increase the penetration of ATMs in several areas of the country. Most ATMs, or machines that dispense cash, are owned by banks. But ones that are owned and operated by non-banking companies are called while-label ATMs (WLAs). They function just the same way as any other bank-run ATM. This scheme has picked up late. From Jan 2013 it is started so by Dec 2014 we should have 63000 WLAs in place.

In Kenya and few other countries of Africa mobile banking is a success story. But in India mobile banking is not picking up to a substantial extent. Why is that so? Efforts are being made to popularise mobile banking. Today most public sector banks have enabled mobile banking and it is matter of time before large number of consumers start recognising it as a good medium to meet their banking related needs. As far as policy front is concerned, all the regulations are in place, not it is only a question of taking the product to the consumer. In Africa, mobile banking is popular because it is the only channel for consumers who want to avail of banking facilities, whereas in India consumers have access to a range of facilities. Also the mobile banking charges need to come down. Another point is that even though today we have more than 70 crore mobile users, not everyone is using device with data connectivity. That too needs to change.

DBT Will Enable our Financial institutions to upgrade their technology

Over the last decade Public Sector Banks have made many commendable efforts to integrate IT into their operations. What else can be done to leverage ICT to improve the efficiency of the public sector and cooperative banks? Today it is difficult for us to imagine banking without IT technologies. Most of the banks have integrated operations with Core Banking Solutions (CBS) in place, and most of these platforms are capable of talking to each other. The same is the case with ATMs. The Department of Financial Services has worked to make PSBs become clones in terms of technology, standardisation of manpower recruitment, accounting practices. Cooperative banks are different; their operations are such that they cannot immediately go to the CBS platform. NABARD came up of a scheme to put the cooperative banks on CBS, but its execution will take time. One reason why cooperative banks find it difficult to achieve a 100 percent implementation of CBS is the remote locations of branches. This also makes it impractical to roll out technological solutions to all branches.

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Bahrain undoubtedly is the financial hub of the Middle East. It is also internationally known to be the most diversified economy in the Gulf region. Unlike other countries in the Gulf region that depend heavily on oil and gas production, in Bahrain, the contribution of this sector is merely 14% of GDP (2007). The most thriving sector in Bahrain currently is the financial sector. Thus, there is no dearth of banking jobs in Bahrain. These financial sector jobs have been increasing as the sector has seen ample growth over the past few years and Bahrain has become an attractive career destination for qualified expatriates in this field. Other than the financial sector, other booming sectors in the region include professional services, logistics, ICT, and manufacturing sectors.

Bahrain boasts of the highest and most transparent regulatory and supervisory standards in its financial sector and has thus become the most established financial hub which has attracted investors for businesses in this field. Despite being such a small country, it has attracted a lot of foreign investment in this region as it is the tried and tested ground for banking and insurance sector. In the region, there are more than 400 licensed financial institutions which contribute nearly 27% of GDP (2007). These institutions operate in banking, insurance and funds. Also, Bahrain is a hub for Islamic finance as the largest number of Islamic financial institutions is located in the region. Owing to these reasons banking jobs in Bahrain have become quite attractive to skilled professionals across the globe.

Bahrain banking jobs are very lucrative too. The prime reason for this is that it is a tax-free region. Thus, no taxes are levied on the compensation of an individual. This is a major puller for expatriates who throng the region to take up such jobs and make savings for a lifetime. These expatriates take up jobs on contractual basis and leave the country at the end of their term but by the time they leave, they save enough money to make the period of stay worthwhile. The quality and the standard of lifestyle offered in Bahrain are also world-class. Though one might find a huge difference in culture but with an open mind, one can enjoy the luxuries offered by the place. One has to be a little open-minded to settle well in the country and accept all the good that it has to offer.

To get a Bahrain banking job, one can apply through various mediums such as recruitment firms operating in the area, newspapers, job sites and also by directly applying to these banks that regularly advertise their vacancies on their websites. If going through a recruitment agency, it is always advisable to choose a certified agency because there are a lot of sham companies operating in this field who make unsuspecting job searchers a prey. Once short listed, the candidates have to go through a comprehensive selection procedure as the standards of selection in top financial companies are also very high. The employer becomes the sponsor of the expatriates who work in Bahrain. In your employment contract, there are other included benefits too. For instance, many employers offer housing, education for children and one annual free trip back home to employees. Considering these benefits, a banking job in Bahrain becomes a sought after one.

Despite the current economic downturn, Bahrains established status as the financial capital of the Middle East is ready to weather these tough times. The sector has seen a surging employment growth in Bahrain’s financial industry in the last few years. There is an emphasis on employing local Bahrainis as the countrys education system has evolved and is producing graduates ready to take up jobs. However, there is still a lot of demand for foreign workers. Prominent financial services companies operating in Bahrain include some big international names such as AIG, American Express, Bank of China, Citibank, European Islamic Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Hanover Re, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, JP Morgan, Lazard, Merrill Lynch, and Standard Chartered. The expansion of these firms in the region has ensured that more and more jobs are being created each year. Apart from banking, insurance and funds are the other two branches in the finance sector that are employing expatriates in large numbers.

How do you know what your present beliefs are? A great way to gauge what your beliefs are about your finances is take a look at your current financial situation. If you dont like your financial status, or you want to achieve more, you have to start by programming the most powerful resource you haveyour brain.

Have you calculated how much you need to earn per hour to achieve your yearly financial goals? Have you ever asked yourself what your highest income producing activity is?

If you’re like most people you probably go about your day-to-day business never really thinking about the moment-to-moment activities that consume your day. I’d like to walk you through an exercise that has helped me and my clients stay focused on earning their highest possible revenue per hour.

Let’s assume that we each start with 365 days in a year. If we take away the following:

Weekends 104 days
Two weeks of vacation
Personal religious holidays – (Three is the average)

That leaves each one of us with approximately 238 days in order to earn the income we desire. Of course, we can add or delete days based on our own schedule and desires. If you multiply these 238 days times an average of 10 working hours per day, you are dealing with 2,380 hours of real work time for the year. So let’s do some math. If your yearly income goals are as follows:

$25k = you must be earning an average of $10.50 every hour of work.
$50K = $21 per hour
$100k = $42 per hour
$250k = $105 per hour
$1 M = $420 per hour
$5 M = $2100 per hour
$10 M = $4200 per hour

In order to earn the income per year that you really want, you absolutely must be doing activities every hour that line up with this chart. If you catch yourself doing anything that isn’t your absolute highest producing income activity all the time, you are in effect making it much harder to achieve your desired financial goals. Answer these four questions:

1.What activity or activities generate your highest producing income?

2.What are you spending your time doing?

3.Are you focused on the real money makers or the real time wasters?

4.Are you making it easy for yourself to be a high-income earner or are you doing the things that can be done by someone whose income goal or ability is less than yours? (Delegate or outsource projects and tasks that arent the highest income producing use of your time.)

I can tell you that when you start to look at each hour this way, you’ll stop doing the small stuff and you’ll start doing the real high producing stuff that yields results. Just look at your most recent three to five days and count the number of hours you spent really making the big bucks vs. all the stuff that creeps up on all of us. What you discover will amaze you.

People often asked me what the next step would be if they wanted to achieve more income so here are a few thoughts for you to ponder. If you are wondering how to move your income into the next level of income per hour, just ask yourself these questions.

1. What skills must I now learn in order to command that income per hour? Please be brutally honest with yourself.

2. How long will that take?

3. Am I committed to doing that?

4. What beliefs about myself must I have in order to achieve a higher income?

5. Am I committed to changing my internal beliefs?

6. Am I prepared to take action now?

7. Who can guide me the fastest to reach my desired income/revenue?

If you put it all in the right order now, you will be programming your mind for business and financial success.

Cashing out and enjoying a life of financial independence first requires the elimination of lifes large expenses. One of the largest expenses many of us face is a mortgage. And, unfortunately, mortgages are kind of a necessary evil in todays society. Real estate prices have reached a level that make paying cash for a home just about cost prohibitive for most families. So, the large majority of us obligate ourselves to pay some unwieldy amount each and every month for the next thirty or more years of our lives.
Three decades is a long time.

What if you could make a dent in that timetable without causing a financial hardship for you or your family? You can. Through a system called The Pocket Change Genius.

The Pocket Change Genius system offers support and information on managing your mortgage and improving your finances. Its simple. Take a look at your own scenario using the unique payment calculatorthat will allow you to plug in your own loan numbers and goals for repayment. You can also use the calculator for what if analyses that is useful and easy to understand. The system will teach you how to pay down your mortgage in an easy and effective way, bringing you that much closer to home ownership.

One of the goals of the system is to provide valuable information on not only mortgage reduction, but other relevant financial subjects, such as money management for debit and credit card users.

Can you imagine the freedom of not having that mortgage payment hanging over your head each month? If you paid it off and eliminated your other debt, you could live debt-free. Imagine the potential this would open up for you! Perhaps you could quit your job and start a business. Take vacations, visit family whenever you like. The possibilities are endless!

Visit pocketchangegenious.com today and take your first step towards financial freedom. You will be glad you did.