Source: Digital Payments in India: A US$10 Trillion Opportunity, BCG & PhonePe Pulse

It is heartening to see both industry and civil society contributing to the evolution of the digital payments ecosystem. FACE (Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment) released its first data-packed report, FACETS highlighting trends in fintech lending from its members. While the number of indicators and data points presented will increase over time, one insight we found particularly interesting is that 90% of the loans had gone to males, showing a wide gender disparity, a feature that was common across lenders. Clearly, the industry must look a little more deeply into this to understand what constrains women from accessing loans through this channel. We also believe that many loans at the household level are logged under the name of the head of household or the chief wage earner. So a payments history is being created for the senior male and not the senior female of the household. Going forward this will make the whole ecosystem biased against women.

Some pointers for fintechs interested in bridging the gender gap come through from the Women and Money research program. As Mary Katica of IDEO.org explains in her recent blog, there are “complex realities” that inhibit women from adopting digital financial services (DFS). Digital confidence and trust emerge when there is a strong support network for learning and onboarding. DFS agents should therefore work from locations that are inherently comfortable for women e.g. hospitals, tailoring shops, etc.

Trust however is a feature that the fintech industry as a whole has to work hard at earning, as Arundhati Ramanathan points out. She showcases two examples - one a rollback from Slice and the other a rollout from Paytm, where trust has been the casualty. Both consumers and the industry must be more cautious as these new products and services evolve on digital platforms.

*********

Do follow our Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion page on Linkedin to continue the conversation. Read on here for more of the latest news and views on financial inclusion in India, thanks!

• New data and insights on the delivery of government benefits are now available with the release of a comprehensive report from Dvara Research, “State of Exclusion: Delivery of Government-to-Citizen Cash Transfers in India”. The study brings together field experiences from eight states to identify the challenges faced by beneficiaries in accessing their dues at every stage of the transfer – from beneficiary enrolment to payments into bank accounts to the actual cash withdrawal from the account. 
• Raghu Mohan from Business Standard writes on the issues challenging the Business Correspondent model, which is the mainstay of financial inclusion in India. The article also cites our ICFI White Paper on Business Correspondents.
• In his Monetary Policy speech, the RBI Governor announced the decision to allow the linking of UPI to credit cards. There are however a number of questions regarding the MDR, KYC, and merchant re-enrollment, and clarity is awaited from the RBI on the modalities. 
• Reserve Bank of India has announced the committee to review customer service standards in RBI regulated entities - the report should be out within three months after the first meeting. Customer service and grievance redressal are continuous pain points in banking in India, the report should include actionable recommendations, which should be monitored by RBI over time.
• Shobha Roy writes in Hindu Business Line on the rising fraud cases through UPI payments, where victims are being duped into sharing personal information by fraudsters.
• In an interview with IBS intelligence, Sasidhar Thumuluri, MD & CEO at Sub-K IMPACT Solutions Ltd details the potential of using digitalization to bridge the rural-urban financial divide. Interestingly, he also mentions that in their ecosystem, within 18 months, borrowers moved from everyone repaying in cash to 25% permanently shifting to digital and another 25% switching between cash and digital-based on convenience. Rural women are also repaying microfinance loans through QR codes and apps.
• The government has released the Draft National Data Governance Framework Policy which covers how data is collected, stored, anonymized, and shared. The draft is open for public feedback till June 11, 2022, and stakeholder discussions will also be held. Ensuring a collaborative approach with stakeholder views is key. Also do read some views in this The Indian Express article by Soumyarendra Barik.
• Reserve Bank of India also continues the push for digital banking introducing cardless cash withdrawals from ATMs now using UPI. This will also reduce the scope of fraud through phishing on the machines.
• Nielsen released Bharat 2.0, a report with fascinating results on the increasing adoption of internet usage in rural India. This augurs well for the ongoing democratization of credit through fintech, as data patterns emerge in hitherto invisible segments. While growth in rural India outstrips urban, one interesting data point is that 1 in every 3 female internet users in rural is actively using the internet.
• Shreya Garg and Manvi Khanna of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy detail the changes needed in the legal system to close the gender gap in financial inclusion. These include a fundamental amendment to the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 to add a criterion classifying MSMEs based on whether they are owned/led by women. Facilitating gender-disaggregated data will allow for more effective targeting and monitoring of government schemes.