Unleashing the Trendsetters BFSI Inspiring Leeders

Un l

tt e

g the Trend n i s sh

CONTENTS MARCH - APRIL 2018

53 Co-operative Societies Key to India’s Social, Economic Rise

COVER STORY

Rahul Modi Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society

58 Empowering Agri - Industry Through Tech Innovations

Arvind Sonmale Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sustainable Agro-commercial Finance Ltd. (SAFL)

INDUSTRY SPEAKS

NBFCs

22 Are You Profiting from Digital in Lending?

THE NEW INNOVATORS OF BFSI INDUSTRY

Nitin Garg Assistant Vice President Marketing, Nucleus Software

24 Early Warning Systems for Credit Risk Default Prediction

12 SPECIAL FEATURE

V K Sudhakar Chief Executive Officer, D2K Technologies

46 Technology Innovations Need of the Hour for NBFCs

Punit Jain Chief Executive Officer, Nelito Systems Ltd

50 Lending Factory to accelerate digital transformation across

loan life cycle Rama Krishna Raju and Pradeep Varma The Founding Directors of Pennant

56 HDFC Bank — Revolutionising Banking with Artificial

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY— REINVENTING BANKING FOR EXCELLENCE

Intelligence Rajnish Khare Head-Digital Transformation, Social Business, New Media and Mobility, HDFC Bank

29 CONFERENCE REPORT

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE 16 Muthoot Homefin — Aligning Technology with Strategy

Mehjabeen Taj Aalam Head of Information Technology at Muthoot Homefin (India) Limited

18 MFIs Reinventing Financial Inclusion in India

S V Raja Vaidyanathan Managing Director, Asirvad Microfinance Ltd

44 Universal Sompo General Insurance-Ensuring Insurance

Penetration with Innovation O N Singh Chairman, Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd

MARCH - APRIL 2018

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Published by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

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EDITORIAL MARCH - APRIL 2018

NBFC Empowered BFSI Scripting India’s Growth Story India’s rise on the world map is chiefly happening due to its banking and finance industry. The political and financial stability are the key factors presenting the country as a potential investment destination for investors across the world. But all this is unimaginable in the absence of its inspiring leaders. Driven by this, the latest issue of the Banking and Finance Post magazine focuses on unleashing the trendsetters, underlining how the BFSI sector, in association with the corporate industry, is steadily introducing several innovations to the way financial transactions are carried out in the country. In a first, the latest issue has thus come up with “India’s Inspiring Leaders-2018”. The issue also underlines how the BFSI sector, in association with the corporate industry, is steadily introducing several innovations to the way financial transactions are carried out in the country. In this light, our cover story ‘NBFCs -- The New Innovators of BFSI Industry’ explains about the rising significance of Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) in the country and mentions the innovative techniques implemented by some of the leading NBFCs in India. Technology, in particular, is playing a significant role in this transformation.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief The Banking & Finance Post and CEO Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

Our ‘3rd NBFC100 Tech Summit’ in New Delhi is the perfect occasion for launching of this special issue. The summit is set to be an unmatched gathering of experts from across the NBFC sector, with special emphasis on Micro Finance Institutions, Small Finance Banks and Payments Banks. Top decision-makers’ congregation at this summit will involve discussions on the rising significance of NBFCs and the role of ICT in transforming the way they are emerging as a force behind India’s BFSI sector. The magazine features several emerging leaders in the sector and corporate industry, their initiatives, vision and views about ongoing projects and their future plans. We have carried a special feature, ‘ Blockchain Technology -- Reinventing Banking for Excellence ‘ highlighting why the blockchain has become one of the most talked about subjects in the banking and financial services industry, transforming everything from payments transactions to how money is raised in the private market. We also have a Special Story ‘Corporate India Magnifying the Essence of NBFCs‘ explaining how India’s NBFC sector is experiencing a rapid growth, courtesy macro economic conditions and high credit penetration and witnessing disruptive digital trends. The magazine features a Summit Report ‘2nd BFSI Cloud & Security Summit’, as delving into the role of cloud and the need for security measures, Elets Technomedia had organised 2nd BFSI Cloud & Security Summit in Mumbai with experts highlighting the need to offer customer-first banking armoured with secured systems. The summit was inaugurated by Rama Vedashree, Chief Executive Officer, Data Security Council of India. With such a host of special features, articles and interviews, we hope our latest endeavour would please our esteemed readers and evoke an invaluable feedback.

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MARCH - APRIL 2018

SPECIAL FEATURE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY— REINVENTING BANKING FOR EXCELLENCE

Blockchain has become one of the most talked about topics in the banking and financial services industry. It is transforming everything from payments transactions to how money is raised in the private market. While this technology in particular is picking up momentum, it is set to change traditional style of banking, writes Rashi Aditi Ghosh of Elets News Network (ENN).

12 MARCH - APRIL 2018

Blockchain -- Revolutionising Indian Banking Blockchain is a distributed, decentralised secured database that works within a private or public network based on consensus arrived upon by participating members (or nodes) within the network. One can develop and built a complete banking and financial services superstore for moving money, collecting money, lending money, protecting money, securing money and advising on money using Blockchain. This can completely transform banking and it is estimated that by 2030 majority of the Financial Services will be Blockchain-based. Explaining the advantages of Blockchain, Sudin Baraokar, Innovation Advisor, State Bank of India, said, “The Blockchain based transactions can never be deleted or changed. The transaction blocks are added to the network chain. This maintains the provenance of the

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SPECIAL FEATURE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

chain due to non reversibility of the data.” “Blockchain can help reduce fraud and help facilitate a more orderly process for settlement by banks,” he added. In the recent days, various countries have seen a dramatic increase in Blockchain adoption, awareness and the government’s openness to the technology. In Budget 2018, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the Centre will explore use of Blockchain technology to boost the digital economy. “Blockchain has potential to transform our lives through its benefits viz. faster settlement times that are user-optimised, lower collateral requirements and counterparty risk, improved contractual term performance, greater transparency for regulatory reporting, better capital optimisation, reduction of operating costs and it is incorruptible,” said Prasanna Lohar, Head-Innovation and Architecture, DCB Bank. Significance Blockchain is considered to be the technology that will transform the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector and the Indian industry is no different. In case of the insurance industry, it has the ability to change the way we share data, process claims and prevent frauds. “Bajaj Allianz General Insurance is the first in the Indian insurance industry to leverage blockchain through ‘Travel Ezee’. It is a unique concept since in case of flight delays, it is not the customer that is initiating the claim process; it is us, the insurance company that keeps a track of claim events and initiates the payout proactively,” said K V Dipu, President and Head of Operations, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. In the future, usage of Blockchain and smart contracts will not only help the insurer manage claims in a responsive and transparent manner, but also aid in fraud detection as it can help record and verify the customer data as record claims. It also has the

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l Blockchain skillset and matured

“Blockchain is considered to be the technology that will transform the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector and the Indian industry is no exception.” ability to transform the payment process for banks by enabling higher security through its shared ledger concept. “I feel that Blockchain will have a profound impact on the BFSI sector and its adoption in real use cases is set to accelerate,” said Dipu. Challenges in Blockchain Implementation Blockchain technology and its derivatives are continuing to mature. However, experts suggest that a number of enabling challenges need to be addressed for its mainstream potential to be realised around the world.

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start-up availability l Technology maturity and required

standardisation l Regulation and Government adoption

support l Development of use cases for

potential benefits to demonstrate real commercialisation potential. Collaboration is the Key The financial services infrastructure will be radically changed by Blockchain technology. Recent trend is towards collaboration i.e. partnerships between banks, technology companies, Fintech and regulators will bring benefits to consumers and the financial system. Bankchain is one of such massive platforms formed in collaboration with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, DCB Bank and 30 more members. We have seen collaboration among competing financial institutions is helping to overcome early challenges associated with the technology and it will ensure that full economic and social benefits are realised. “Certainly after five years we will not talk about Blockchain. But its use cases just like we don’t talk about Internet but its Usecases over browsers. Post- Demonetisation, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and many other movements in innovations, Blockchain and its underlying technology would be “Radical Change Agent” in India,” said Lohar of DCB Bank. 

MARCH - APRIL 2018 13

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UNLEASHING TRENDSETTERS INDIA’S INSPIRING LEADERS- 2018 “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”: John C Maxwell The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector, in association with the corporate industry, is steadily introducing several innovations to the way financial transactions are carried out in the country. Technology, in particular, is playing a significant role in this transformation. In a first, The Banking & Finance Post, Asia and the Middle East’s premier bi-monthly magazine on banking and financial services, has come up with “India’s Inspiring Leaders-2018”. The endeavour recognises outstanding individuals and organisations exemplifying integrity and ethical leadership in the BFSI sector and Corporate, while providing services in the BFSI landscape. The issue features several emerging leaders in the sector and corporate industry, their initiatives and views on ongoing projects and their future plans.

MARCH - APRIL 2018

[ bfsi.eletsonline.com ] Asia and the Middle East’s Leading Portal on Banking and Finance Sector

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE MEHJABEEN TAJ AALAM

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

MUTHOOT HOMEFIN — ALIGNING TECHNOLOGY WITH STRATEGY Imagine the digital footprints being left behind every minute. Every time a person uses his phone to call, message, browse the internet, use social media, recharge – he leaves trail. Intelligent systems can use this data for consumer risk assessment and credit scoring and profiling, says Mehjabeen Taj Aalam, Head of Information Technology at Muthoot Homefin (India) Limited, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

The Home Finance Industry in India is diversifying in alignment with digitisation. What role is Muthoot playing in this regard? Any line of business capable of diversification would want to enlarge its range of products and field of operations. But irrespective of the propensity to diversify, the feasibility often falls prey to many delimiters. Digitisation is helping pave the way for making these options viable. Since the advent of digital lending, the entire drama around initiating a home loan application has been cut. The stress of visiting branches while waiting queues with piles of paper is uncommon these days. Borrowers today can calculate their eligibility from the comfort of their home and even generate

16 MARCH - APRIL 2018

in-principle sanction letters. At Muthoot, we believe in aligning technology with strategy, where it acts as an enabler for both us and our customers. Affordable housing is shifting paradigm and we are hopeful of putting technology to good use.

How do you rate the level of technology adaptation among NonBanking Financial Companies (NBFCs)? Do you think technologies like Artificial intelligence or Machine Learning has a future in India? NBFCs and small & medium lending firms have the most to gain from the digital wave. Their business models which are based on non-traditional methods of lending and which have a lot of scope and pliancy when it comes to product designs and offerings, can put digitisation to good use. And in fact,they already have! Digitisation is no longer the latest fad in that sector. NBFCs by their very nature, work with higher operational risks, scenarios where their banking counterparts would ideally tighten their purse strings. Technology that can help de-risk the portfolio without impacting the quantum of business will get adopted beyond doubt. Artificial intelligence based analytics is helping organisations track a customer’s journey and design highly customised service offerings. With so many players in the market, customer loyalties have become fragile and customer retention has evolved into a science of its own. Companies are also using AI to manage risk by interpreting regulations and accordingly codifying compliance rules. So you see, all these subsets -AI,

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE MEHJABEEN TAJ AALAM

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

machine learning or deep learning, they hog on data and digitisation provides them just that. It’s a pretty selfsustaining model once you’ve got your digital agenda right.

Union Budget 2018 outlined the significance of Blockchain and Fintech in the financial industry. How enduring this would be for the BFSI sector? Frankly, it’s difficult to predict the durability of these technologies at this point. Agreed that these concepts are revolutionary,and in the wake of their initial success they are touted to be the next big thing, but their usability is yet to be tested to a great extent in the Indian scenario. I mean we have been going gaga about the Cloud for more than a decade now but it’s still in the test mode as far as pureplay financial data is concerned. Cloud adoption has grown but mostly in a hybrid mode. The trust factor with placing sensitive and confidential financial data on cloud is still missing. The hitches are there today, may not be tomorrow, but who can tell? Unless verifiable technical solutions are made available, this tentativeness will keep clinging to it. Blockchain is a decentralised technology. Any stir anywhere, is a function of the entire network. That’s huge. That’s what makes it so attractive to the finance industry. But again, that’s exactly what will make you squirm should something go wrong somewhere. Hence institutions today are playing safe and operating in the experimental mode. The model is pretty much hybrid here as well. Recently RBI banned banks and other entities regulated by it from dealing in virtual currencies. There have been events of frauds around cryptocurrencies where investors lost chunks of money. These are complicated technologies. Don’t toy with them till you understand them fully. The underlying technology concept might not be flawed, but if it’s vulnerable, it’s better to exercise caution. Having said that, the financial industry has the biggest use case for Fintech and digital technology. Because unlike other

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industries, it is made up of information which is nothing but data which is nothing but digital. It has largely been a good disruption so far as it has helped us operate at lower costs, improve TATs and identify newer business avenues. Going forward, how effectively Fintech is put to use with minimum loopholes will determine its future course of success.

Majority of the populace in the country resides in rural areas. How challenging is it for the financial companies to implement digitisation in the regions where financial inclusion is not yet achieved? Indians are the second largest mobile phone users in the world, over 590

Indians are the second largest mobile phone users in the world, over 590 million unique users. Out of which 300 million are smartphone users, estimated to double in next 2-3 years. million unique users. Out of which 300 million are smartphone users, estimated to double in next 2-3 years. But the digital wave so far has primarily reached consumers who have a high personal disposable income and are well educated and well connected, so I see where your question is coming from. However, the fact to note here is that the next level penetration is pretty much WIP and is constantly catching pace.

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Government initiatives like the National Digital Literacy Mission where they aspire to make at least one person per family digitally literate, are contributing to its spread and acceptance. Around 8.2 million people had already been trained under NDLM as on Dec 2016. With such focus on digitisation backed by government support, rural India would soon be onboarding and riding this wave. And in view of this development, lending can actually get very innovative. Technologies that can combine analysis on credit scoring, behavioral study and social analytics will be able to capture a huge underserved market segment and fill a large SME funding gap in rural India.

Technology is significant so is the risk of getting infected with malicious activities. What measures should organisations take for ensuring in terms of safety? Security risks come with digitisation as fine prints on an agreement, infallibly there, invariably ignored. If you are looking at going digital, the first thing you’ll see standing in your way will be the security question. The more we spread digitally, the more surface area we expose for attack. With hacking scripts available on public forums and plethora of unsecured IoT devices, even amateur hackers are able to dig in. In today’s technical landscape, limited point solutions won’t work. Whatever be your defense mechanism - threat / data breach protection, cybersecurity solution - be mindful of the fact that no solution would be perfect, but taking adequate measures will make a big difference. See, digitisation can make contamination easier and that is exactly why it should be judiciously applied. Do a genuine assessment of your digital needs. And if you choose to go digital, don’t shy away from security expenses. There is no point buying a grand palace and then leaving the doors unguarded for the thugs. How prepared are you will determine if you draw benefits or end up paying a price. 

MARCH - APRIL 2018 17

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE S V RAJA VAIDYANATHAN

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

MFIs REINVENTING FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA How significant are MFIs in terms of Financial Inclusion in India?

Financial Inclusion via micro finance institutions (MFIs) is just one aspect of banking the unbanked segments of society. But it is very important, as finance is pivotal for social as well as economic development of the poor populace, says S V Raja Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Asirvad Microfinance Ltd, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

18 MARCH - APRIL 2018

Financial Inclusion (FI) is generally defined in terms of financial exclusion. In India, majority of the population belongs to lower income group. But the facilities which can be availed be it financial services or any other services generally targets the few rich people. Thereby the low-income group gets neglected. This is the kind of exclusion which needs to be highlighted by favouring the concept of Financial Inclusion. The great tragedy lies in the fact that sometimes even though there are certain financial services, specially designed to meet the needs of these low-income group people, these people remain unaware about the due to illiteracy or other reasons. Thus, lack of awareness also leads to the financial exclusion. Role of Micro Finance: The main aim of financial inclusion is to make the financial services accessible to lower income group and that is where role of micro finance comes in. For the achievement of Financial Inclusion, the most important goal is to make the banking facilities available to all the unbanked areas and each household. Micro Finance plays a very important role in Financial Inclusion in different ways such as: Micro credit is provided to Self Help Groups (SHGs) consisting men and women in remote areas as they are the target group of this facility. There are various organisations providing micro credit along with which

they also conduct training for first time customers and impart them financial literacy and explain about the various micro finance products available to them.

According to a report released by Micro Finance Institutions Network, MFIs registered a growth of 43 per cent year-on-year. How do you analyse this growth for the sector and what opportunities do you see in this? NBFC-MFIs play an important role in the government’s agenda of Financial Inclusions as they cater to the unbanked sections of Indian society under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The microfinance industry has witnessed impressive growth over the past five years, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 45 per cent. It has also evolved and matured with regulatory reforms following the Andhra Pradesh crisis (in 2010) that address product, pricing and protection of customer interest. Following these regulatory reforms, we have seen the emergence of regulated NBFC MFIs, the formation of a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO), and transformation of some MFIs into universal and small finance banks. With over 45 million end clients, a loan book of over Rs 1 lakh crore, and employing over 1.2 lakh people across 10,000 odd branches, the microfinance sector has emerged as a formidable force for the spread of financial inclusion in India.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE S V RAJA VAIDYANATHAN

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

Despite the growth, the industry caters to less than 25 per cent of the demand and this indicates the potential for future growth. The outreach of MFI has been growing rapidly over the past few years due to low penetration of formal banking system, especially among lower income groups. The impact of demonetisation has nudged the MFI sector to move towards cashless modes of operation. However, it is expected that a significant proportion of MFI transactions (mainly collections) would continue to be in cash due to small ticket size, and low penetration of smartphones among its low-income customer base. We expect the industry to register a modest growth of 30 per cent.

Asirvad Microfinance has completed a decade in the industry. How has been your journey so far? We have completed 11 years so far. Our growth strategy was very different initially. We always wanted to reach highest productivity in one territory before moving on to a newer one. Capital was also a constraint for growth for us. But since Manappuram Finance acquired the company in 2015, the growth was accelerated and today we are the sixth largest NBFC – MFI in the country Rs 2300 crore Assets Under Management (AUM). We have a PAN India presence. We are spread across 21 states with 1.5 million members and a network of around 832 branches. With the support of Manappuram, Asirvad will certainly emerge as one of the top three in the very near future. The journey has not been very smooth but it’s certainly satisfying given the fact that we put smiles across million women in India. With these small loans we help them to dream big. Asirvad is committed to be a longterm player in the Financial Inclusion space and plays vital role in supporting the government in this endeavour.

What are your digital offerings? Technology and innovation have become

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“With over 45 million end clients, a loan book of over Rs 1 lakh crore, and employing over 1.2 lakh people across 10,000 odd branches, the microfinance sector has emerged as a formidable force for the spread of financial inclusion in India.” key drivers of economic growth. In the recent past, technology has undoubtedly triggered economic growth, impacting significantly microfinance sector too. Convergence of digital platform in financial inclusion benefits MFIs and clients alike. Automation of transactions due to digitisation enables MFIs enhance capital, flow of information and

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makes it convenient to organise and scrutinise data. Digital offerings by Asirvad: 1. Asirvad was one of the first few MFIs that embraced mobile technology in their filed operation as early as in 2008. 2. TAB and Bluetooth printer to all field staff to get Real Time Data, Real time electronic receipting and accounting. Printed receipt to customers. 3. E-Know Your Customer( Ekyc), e-Sign based customer on-boarding: Online/Offline modes, Paper less, Reduction in TAT 3. Analytical Dashboard (Comparison with other MFI & BFSI):Our performance can be analysed w.r.t other MFIs, NBFCs and Banks 4. Moved to 100 per cent cashless disbursement since August 2017 and are exploring least cost avenues o cashless collection. 5. Many process automations are underway like field force tracking through GPS, center mapping etc. and such other measures to improve productivity and enhance member satisfaction. 

MARCH - APRIL 2018 19

INDUSTRY SPEAKS NITIN GARG, NUCLEUS SOFTWARE

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

ARE YOU PROFITING FROM DIGITAL IN LENDING?

Rapid changes in technology and the growing expectations have created tremendous opportunities in many industries including financial services, writes Nitin Garg, Assistant Vice President Marketing, Nucleus Software for Elets News Network (ENN).

ustomers are now demanding products and services that are customised to meet their individual needs, and they expect to be able to transact at a time and a place of their choice. Capitalising on the gap between customer expectations and the services offered by banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), FinTech companies, have prospered by offering a unique combination of business innovation and advanced technology. They created winning propositions for both the lender and the end customer. As a result, there has been a wave of digital transformation in financial services globally. Consequently, it can be very easy to say that the reasons for going digital are driven solely by

22 MARCH - APRIL 2018

customer expectations. But there is more to it than that. Clearly, it helps to reduce costs and this may make it more appealing for younger customers. If competitors are all going digital and if the regulators are pushing digital, the pressure builds. While all the above are valid reasons for adopting a digital proposition, it is also essential to ensure that it delivers an additional source of revenue. This is when things become tricky – how can financial institutions actually ensure that they profit from digitising lending? l Create capacity with speed – Customers today expect loan decisions within minutes not days. And while “trust” and quality of service are important when making a choice, speed and convenience are increasingly crucial. When you are able to process loan applications quickly without compromising on the quality of your credit portfolio, you create more capacity to process higher loans without adding extra cost. l Become ubiquitous with virtual – Digital helps you originate and service loans without requiring your customers to visit the branch. It means that you can grow your business anywhere, even in places where you don’t have any physical branches. This is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to scale up for fast growing companies in a market that is expanding rapidly. l Reduce time-to-market – With fast changing customer demands, dynamic economic conditions and evolving regulatory landscapes, there is a continual need to roll out new products, perhaps anticipating market needs in certain cases. The first mover advantage in a highly competitive market can be

tremendously valuable and market leaders need to be able to conceptualise, design and launch innovative products very quickly. A digital setup empowers you to do that effectively. l Sell more with targeted products – Targeting customers with the right offer at the right time is tremendously challenging. A digital infrastructure powered by insights from analytics can help you identify who to target, with what product and when they are most likely to react. l Leverage the agility of the cloud – A cloud based setup helps you focus on your business while leaving the Information Technology (IT) to be managed by the experts and leading cloud providers. Supported by market leading security, the cloud model assures scalability, cost effectiveness and faster implementations. In case of lending implementations, customers go live in as little as four days. l Enhance credit quality – By making better credit decisions faster, you improve the quality of your credit portfolio, which, in turn, reduces the level of non-performing loans (NPLs) translating into higher returns. An end-to-end digitised infrastructure eliminates manual intervention, reduces errors, standardises decision-making (not relying on individual, case-by-case judgment) and identifies pre-delinquent cases early (which can help prevent them becoming delinquent). While the buzz around digital focuses a lot on the channels and front-end, it is essential to understand that for a seamless customer experience, the back-end needs to work with the front-end. So, the question is when do you plan to begin your journey to profit from digital in lending? 

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HIGHLY COMMENDED AWARD 2016 FOR BEST USE OF IT IN LENDING BANKING TECHNOLOGY

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INDUSRTY SPEAKS D2K TECHNOLOGIES

EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS FOR CREDIT RISK DEFAULT PREDICTION CRisMac Early Warning Systems (EWS) and Non Performing Assets (NPAs) Monitoring Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) along with other Financial Institutions (FIs) have been providing credit largely to unorganised sector of the economy, encountering challenges in conserving their risk capital. However, with the increased use of technology platforms and simultaneous availability of other lending options, various dynamics of business processes have undergone realignment, especially in the area of customer acquisition; credit assessment; asset quality monitoring and for meeting stringent regulatory reporting requirements. FIs, including NBFCs, are facing the issue of burgeoning Non Performing Assets (NPAs) as never before. Monitoring potential NPAs and following NPAs for effective recovery is a top priority.

Stress Precedes Defaults; Identify Stress to Manage Defaults It is estimated that stressed exposures account for nearly 9 to 10 per cent of the outstanding loans. In the conventional approach, the potential defaults and its severity are identified through Days Past Due (DPD) method for monitoring and follow up. However, the dynamics of market forces influencing lending eco-systems, demand corresponding robust approaches to enable proactive interventions for arresting slippages or minimise the rate of NPA creation.

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D2K Technologies’ CRisMac EWS is the comprehensive Risk Engine which leverages latest in technology with predictive capabilities. CRisMac EWS system uses advanced web crawlers to collate data from over 2500 sources, analysis transaction behaviour, track backward and forward linked sectors or segments to discern stress and use advanced statistical modelling techniques to generate a readable EWS or Credit Risk Score. CRisMac EWS facilitates Customer Analysis, Industry insights and identify over 175 plus risk triggers. The system assimilates dynamic data in conjunction

with institutional memory flowing through the organisation and sets a bench mark score for comparison with its corresponding peers. CRisMac EWS enables plough-in both structured and un-structured data seamlessly to the point of use by field and monitoring staff. The dynamic CRisMac EWS score is rendered on mobile devices including tablets for ease and rich user experience. The predictive models help in identifying a default prone exposure at least 9-12 months in advance to enable the NBFC to identify the stress and apply remedial measure. The CRisMac EWS Risk engine can be proactively used for origination, monitoring, review and monitoring of existing exposures and compute Risk Capital requited as per Basel norms. where in a vast amount of the dealing experience remains outside the NBFC’s Institutional Memory. The real time alerts enables the monitoring staff to proactively intervene and arrest the asset from becoming a NPA. The changing face of lending risk largely goes unrecognised and poses avoidable risk of asset quality erosion. A data driven, technology enables CRisMacEWS cover the gap in mitigating the Asset quality risk effectively.  Views expressed in this article are of V K Sudhakar, Chief Executive Officer, D2K Technologies. www.d2ktechnologies.com

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CRisMac KRISHAK

Distress in rural India is adversely impacting wage economy of vast population dependent upon the sector. Financial Institutions (FIs) have been finding it a daunting task to respond to the emerging challenges due to complex inter-dependences of various components of the rural society and rural economy at large. D2K Technologies' CRisMac Krishak is a comprehensive technology platform to enable FIs (including Banks & NBFCs) effectively address the challenges in dealing with risk mitigation while catering to the rural sector. CRisMac Krishak renders timely credit, adequate credit and counselled credit by leveraging the thorough scientific and banking domain expertise built into the system. The platform has an inbuilt analytics engine along with price prediction capabilities to enable effective Risk Mitigation for both lenders and borrowers. Right from assessment of production credit needs of rural households to assessment of term project economics with customised document generation capabilities, CRisMac Krishak, effectively saves time and resource for all the stakeholders. The extensive data analytics facilitates Risk Mitigation Approach for meeting credit needs of all types of borrowers including Self Help Group (SHG), JLGs, FPOs and individual agri- entrepreneurs. The solution leverages vast data on crop, animal husbandry industry, geography, research material and in conjunction with other market intelligence enables all stake holders to mitigate specific risk rather then find ways to transfer the same to others. CrisMac Krishak is a one stop solution for all associated with rural lending and risk mitigation.

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SPECIAL STORY

CORPORATE INDIA MAGNIFYING

THE ESSENCE OF NBFCs

India’s Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) sector is experiencing a rapid growth, courtesy macroeconomic conditions and high credit penetration. It is also witnessing disruptive digital trends. Playing a significant role, the corporate sector is helping the NBFCs in adapting tech-driven innovations, writes Rashi Aditi Ghosh of Elets News Network (ENN).

Corporate Sector Boosting NBFCs’ Growth NBFCs are undergoing a great revolution to erupt how financial services have been made available to individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs. The newly discovered focus of NBFCs is receiving a lot of support from the corporate sector in the form of products and services. Explaining about the role of corporate sector in terms of NBFCs, Manish Khera, Chief Executive Office and Founder, Happy Loans ,says , “NBFCs are moving away from a traditional credit data checks and exploring newer ways to include the

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underserved masses in India. Happy, a brand of ArthImpact Finserve, offers small digital loans to microentrepreneurs starting from as low as Rs 2000 for as short as 30 days. “These loans are 100 per cent digital and require zero physical documentation. Happy partners with merchant aggregators like Mswipe, Weizman forex, Payworld, PayTm, Aditya Birla bank and more to capture alternate business data of these merchants to offer a line of credit for their retail businesses.” Like the Banking, Financial Services

and Insurance (BFSI) sector, the NBFCs too are inclined towards adapting the digital modes. “NBFC are competing with banks for more than a decade now. Borrowers prefer them over banks as they have faster decision-making capabilities, prompt services, and expertise in niche segments. They are more technologically advanced too. They have expanded its focus to reach NBFCs and microfinance companies with modular and highly customable solutions,” said Punit Jain, Chief Executive Officer, Nelito Systems.

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SPECIAL STORY

Nelito Systems-Helping NBFCs in Ensuring Innovative offerings How are NBFCs reinventing themselves and what role is corporate sector playing in this regard? NBFCs are competing with banks for more than a decade now. Borrowers prefer them over banks as they have faster decision-making capabilities, prompt services, and expertise in niche segments. They are more technologically advanced too. They have expanded its focus to reach NBFCs and Microfinance companies with modular and highly customable solutions. Our belief: Agility is achieved through a great product, and agile method of services delivery. What services do you offer to NBFCs? Nelito Systems has created a niche for itself by offering its own products as well as services. The comprehensive, open API enabled FinCraftTM Integrated Lending Management Solution (ILMS) delivers unparalleled value to your business – whether you are scaling up or looking to quickly launch new products. Designed to manage the complete loan lifecycle seamlessly, ILMS empowers you to optimize the operations, increase reach by combining straight through processing and analytical capabilities. What changes did your product and services brought in the NBFCs that you cater to? We have created an agile framework for NBFCs and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Each NBFC/MFI has different business process and lot of new-age lending companies’ focus on niche markets for their loan products. Our framework is highly configurable to suit faster deployment. The solution also handles large volumes

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of transactions per day with our Mobile First and Cloud Ready interface. How Nelito’sFinCraftTM Integrated Lending Management Solution helps NBFCs? With the help of technology, customers would be able to transact just the way they want. Technology will also allow NBFCs to tailor make products and customise services. They can send out well targeted automated messages, provide more personal access to customers and provide more efficient service. Investing in new technologies will also allow NBFCs to lower their cost whether it is increasing their customer base, servicing existing customers or de-risking the portfolio while trying to overcome the increasing formal credit penetration in a growing economy. l Perennial problems as identified by the Nelito’s client l Manual Lending Process with multiple handoffs and loosely tied controls l Relationship Managers struggle to access accurate information Business leaders lack a comprehensive approach in managing risk and collaterals, exposing the enterprise to high credit and operational threats Catering to audit requirements is strenuous as detailed trail of user

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action is not logged and there is no accountability Advising customers on the right product mix was always a challenge, as RMs rarely have access to reports on customer behaviour which could be tied to relevant product mix and service offerings Weak customer services lead to higher attrition l Benefits achieved by our clients through FinCraftTM Integrated Lending Management Solution l Lead to loan disbursement in 30 minutes l Integration with 20 external applications to achieve straight through processing l Cloud ready option for cost effective and secure deployment Mobile first solution for: l Branchless operations to increase reach in market and reduction in operating cost l Dealer based solution helps in expansion of business. l Automated End to End loan management l Analytics to find cross selling and up selling opportunities l Agility- to quickly accommodate customer’s requirements and customisations.

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SPECIAL STORY

Corporate Sector is Reinventing NBFCs: Kuliza Case Study Sharing about the digital complications, Kuliza is a leading brand that helps NBFCs and banks transform their lending processes by providing new-age digital first lending systems, mentions of a case study of a leading NBFC. It describes the challenges it faced and how did the brand helped the financial entity. To cater to the needs of the emerging digital landscape, one of India’s leading NBFCs decided to digitalise its lending process - for both, business and retail lending. The process, which was completely offline earlier, led to high operational costs and customer drop offs. It also did not offer any insights into lending patterns and trends. Digitalising the loan process would not only help the NBFC achieve faster processing time and improve productivity but also serve as ‘value addition’ to today’s tech-savvy generation who prefer digital mediums over the traditional ones. Challenges Faced by Kuliza’s Client The leading NBFC had to tackle the following challenges to build a robust solution that could automate the end-toend lending process in line with the most critical requirements identified.

Need for high security and compliance with RBI guidelines Bespoke architecture design and planning to enable the solution to be secure. Design that ensured no server could be accessed from the internet, and only enabling the Application Programming Interface (API) gateway to access the servers inside the security groups. Achieving a quick go-to-market for new loan products Process diagrams of different journeys had to be configured in the solution to achieve quicker time to market. Need to adapt to credit model changes

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Changing the credit model is a longdrawn process. Therefore, the solution had to be designed to read excel sheets and translate the cell formulas into the calculation code to make the journey agnostic to credit model changes and achieve faster turnarounds.

Fail-proof user journey during third party integration Firstly, the error codes had to be evaluated and based on the results, the journey and the messaging system

Team Kuliza at work

had to be tweaked to make the user experience more meaningful. Secondly, all failure errors had to be captured, and an immediate alert was to be sent to the support team to help them understand and tackle the issue.

Long user wait times while calling third party APIs were called, and responses were awaited The solution designed had to ensure all the API calls were made ASYNC, eliminating undue waiting for the response. Additionally, user journey was to be brought to a soft-landing when information from the journey was awaited. Ecosystem with multiple vendors There were around 23 different vendors in the system who had be accounted for. The NBFC had to successfully tackle the issue by coordinating, planning and assigning clear ownership. Lack of documentation from multiple vendors Documents for multiple systems to create product visibility and understanding

Need to accommodate multiple journeys and the scale The solution architecture had to be designed in such a way that the backend processes could be categorised into subbases and accommodate journeys with different needs. In addition, if scalability issue came up, the required sub-base had to be scaled without affecting other sub-bases. Multiple incoherent systems made communication difficult Dealing with different masters across systems (LOS, LMS and SAP) and to create a custom data dictionary. Solutions Offered by Kuliza The NBFC built a robust solution to transform their lending process and achieved the following by leveraging Kuliza’s expertise in Architecture Design, DevOps, Development and Support Quicker GTM due to phase-wise development The solution was deployed using best practices such as enforcing bucketing of the requirements and having a sprintbased GTM plan to help evolve the product quicker once introduced in the market. Scalability The categorisation of backend processes into sub-bases made the solution extremely scalable to cater to future growth in volumes. Bespoke Service Oriented Architecture Built using bespoke, highly secure and fail-safe architecture, the solution created the roadmap of the lending process and offered BPM and API gateway optimisations. While NBFCs are gradually getting popular due to their services, corporate sector is helping them in attaining their endeavours. The association in the recent times is expected to grow further as NBFCs are perking up their decision- making capabilities services and are getting technologically advanced too. 

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

WHEN BANKING EXPERTS DISCUSSED TECH-DRIVEN CYBER SECURITY

(From R to L) K Ramachandran, Senior Advisor-Banking Technology, Indian Banks' Association, Rama Vedashree, Chief Executive Officer, Data Security Council of India,Souvik Goswami of Elets Technomedia,Hare Krishna Kumar N, Country Manger-Vertica, Micro Focus,Mithilesh Singh, Director and Head-Technology Audit, IDFC Bank and Manu Raj Singhal of Elets Technomedia, during inauguration ceremony of the 2nd BFSI Cloud & Security Summit, 2018, Mumbai.

Delving into the role of cloud and the need for security measures, Elets Technomedia organised 2nd BFSI Cloud & Security Summit in Mumbai, where experts highlighted the need to offer customer first banking armored with secured systems. The summit focused upon some of the most emerging issues pertaining to cyber security and safe banking. It highlighted the use of technologies such as cloud computing, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Sector. In the summit, experts also talked about the various reforms initiated by the Centre for promoting the usage of digitisation in the banking sector. They opined that banking sector institutions are opening up and showing their acceptance towards new technology up-gradations. They are now collaborating with external interfaces. Rama Vedashree, Chief Executive Officer, Data Security Council of India inaugurated the summit. Several other dignitaries namely Brijesh Singh, Secretary and Director General, Directorate General of Information and Public Relation, Government of Maharashtra ,K Ramachandran, Senior Advisor-Banking Technology, Indian Banksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association and Haresh Krishna Kumar N, Country Manager-Vertica, Micro Focus were part of the inaugural session and deliberated about their expertise pertaining to the banking and financial industry.

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The Banking and Finance Post

MARCH - APRIL 2018 29

CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

INAUGURAL SESSION

INNOVATION LED BFSI TRANSFORMATION: IMPORTANCE OF DATA SECURITY: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

BRIJESH SINGH

Special Inspector General Cyber Security, Maharashtra Police Security and functionality always work in inverse relationship. I look at the entire cloud consortium as a beehive. What works for the individual bee does not work for beehive. The kind of attacks that are directed to the bee is different from that of the beehive. While cloud gives you a lot of functionalities, it also exposes you to an entirely new set of vulnerabilities. Cloud has its own adversities.

K RAMACHANDRAN

Senior Advisor-Banking Technology, Indian Banks’ Association In the last two-three years, banks have been focusing on digital transactions. Technology development in India only started after 2000. Before that, we only had stand-alone systems. We now see that most of our customers have mobile phones are banks are adapting to all the technologies to serve the need of the customer as per his/her requirement.

30 MARCH - APRIL 2018

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

RAMA VEDASHREE

Chief Executive Officer, Data Security Council of India Today, even banking sector institutions are opening up and showing their acceptance towards new technology upgradations. They are now collaborating with external interfaces. In the banking sector, there has been a lot of discussions pertaining to the implementation of Blockchain. We see a lot of startups leveraging new technologies in the banking sector.

HARESH KRISHNA KUMAR N Country Manager-Vertica, Micro Focus

When data base servers are generating data for you it becomes very difficult to bring all these under one platform. It is important that every data base to share a common platform and share the same language. Vertica helps you in this regard. It primarily emphasises on four major areas namely predictive analysis, hybrid Information Technology management, security and data management, DevOps.

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MARCH - APRIL 2018 31

CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

MITHILESH SINGH

Director and Head â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Technology Audit, IDFC Bank Demonetisation was one such instance that disrupted entire payments segment of the BFSI sector. This period in particular gave rise to a plethora of initiatives in terms of digitisation. Centre too flagged off several major schemes and programmes to boost the usage of digital payments in country.

TECHNOLOGY PRESENTATION

PANEL DISCUSSION

Exploring Cloud Security, Operational Visibility and Elastic Datacenters

Cloud Computing: Opportunities, Challenges, Risk and Mitigations in BFSI Sector

KIRAN MOHANDAS

MANOJ NAYAK

The biggest challenge that most of the analytic solutions face today is the monitoring of large amount of data from multiple sources and there is no out-of-box solution to manage this concern. We also face problems due to shared infrastructures.

Cloud Computing is a buzzword in the recent times. Organisations and experts are now relating it to the virtualisation of the application, storage, infrastructure and several other domains. People now perceive that this piece of technology will give rise to a lot of benefits and opportunities.

Senior Consulting engineer, Juniper Networks

32 MARCH - APRIL 2018

Chief Information Security Officer, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

PRASANNA LOHAR

Head-Innovation and Architecture, DCB Bank

Today’s consumer and their needs are hyperactive. It is therefore important for the brands to evolve and shift to cloud in alignment with the consumer’s dynamic requirements. Cloud comes with lots of opportunities that help the brand in offering hyper-persionalised services to the customers.

GAUTAM KS Head _IT, Auxilo Finserve

The days of saving the data within the premises have phased out. In today’s world there are several software available as services. Thinking about cost effectiveness and ease of operations, organisations are now going for cloud services.

TECHNOLOGY PRESENTATION

MEHJABEEN TAJ AALAM

Head-IT, Muthoot Home Finance

Cloud is going to be one of the fastest growing technologies as far banking in concerned. Its growth is entirely connected with the benefits it offers. The major advantage that cloud has is its cost efficiency.

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Spirent’s Enterprise Cloud Testing and Benchmarking Solutions

KESHAVA RAJU

Technical Marketing Engineer, Spirent at 2nd BFSI Cloud and Security Summit

Spirent helps the customer in consulting services for end-toend cloud design and building, cloud infra benchmarking and capacity planning, security assurance solutions and test automation and orchestration. It helps in verifying network reachability bandwidth performance with realistic application traffic load, network latency, network resiliency, underlay and overlay scalability and maintain throughout quality of service.

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

PANEL DISCUSSION

ABHIJIT SHAH

Roadmap of Artificial Intelligence: Availability and Usage for Better Banking Services

Chief Technology Officer, DCB Bank

In terms of banks if we consider AI for front office operations it has a lot of opportunities and significance. It has a great ability to understand the customer’s query. Middle office operations of banks too has a lot of scope for AI as far as fraud management, risk mitigation etc.

DEEPAK SHARMA Chief Digital Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is exciting because it is the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution. This technology is going to redefine anything and everything that we do. However, like all other technologies AI too is surrounded with a lot of assumptions, fear and challenges.

RAJEEV ARORA

Chief Executive Officer, Fino Finance

The prime question that encircles AI and its implementation is, “Can machines work like humans?” .At Fino Finance we do a lot of robotics process automation as we want instant fulfillment and that is not possible if there are multiple touch points involving a lot of approvals and disapprovals.

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SURESH A SHAN

Head - Digital Innovation and Future Technology, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services

We at Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services have introduced an AI powered chat service for our rural customers where they can feed in their queries and can avail relevant solutions pertaining to housing loan. This chat service is helping us in getting a data base of the customers along with their queries. We process the data further and reach the customers with extended services.

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT PANEL DISCUSSION

DOMINIC VIJAY KUMAR

Head-IT, ART Affordable Housing Finance Ltd

We are trying to implement an AI enabled system that will help us in analysing whether a customer is credible. This service will try to resolve various queries prior to human interference. We are also planning to bring in chatbots into our offerings.

RAJENDRA MHALSEKAR

Head-Corporate Banking Technology, YES Bank

Few months ago people were doubtful about the use of Blockchain. They thought it to be some sort of marketing gimmick. But today it has become a reality in the banking sector.

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Blockchain Technology: Evolution of BlockChain Technology in New-Age Banking

SUDIN BARAOKAR Innovation Advisor, State Bank of India

State Bank of India has launched banking alliance BankChain. This entity was formed with State Bank of India being the first member. It now has 22 Indian banks, including ICICI Bank, DCB Bank and Axis Bank and five Middle Eastbased banks. BankChain has tied up with Pune-based startup Primechain Technologies to create these solutions.

KV DIPU

President and Head of Operations, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

Blockchain is considered to be the technology that will transform the BFSI sector and the Indian industry is no different. In case of the insurance industry, it has the ability to change the way we share data, process claims and prevent frauds.

The Banking and Finance Post

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

PANEL DISCUSSION

JOYDEEP DUTTA

Cyber Security: Enhancing the Cyber Security Resilience in the Financial Services Sector

Executive Director and Group Chief Technology Officer, Central Depository Securities Ltd

JYOTI PRAKASH

Cyber security is a business risk. It is not a problem concerning Information Technology. Securing the information of an organisation is a collective responsibility so every employee should pledge towards achieving the same. For instance, if an employee is sending a mail with a wrong attachment or may be opening a mail that has malware, it can make potential harm to the organisation.

Country Director IndiaSecurity, Micro Focus

The first basic rule of cyber security is to monitor the movement of data because without having proper monitoring mechanism it will be impossible to keep a tap on the malicious activities.

MANOJ SARANGI

SVP and Chief Information Security Officer, National Securities Depository Limited

The total cost of data breach is expected to reach two trillion by 2019.In this scenario it is important to first decide what is important for the organisation. Data security starts from Point-of-Scale and data has to be secured throughout its life cycle.

36 MARCH - APRIL 2018

RAJENDRA BHALERAO

Head-Information Security, National Payments Corporation of India

It is important to understand the nature of your business first. It will be then be possible for you to develop use cases. Simultaneously, it is important for recruit and train a team to understand the nuances of cyber security. Further, professionals should be trained as per their skill set because it is not possible for one individual to understand the entire operating system singlehandedly.

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

DHEERAJ PUROHIT Head - IT, Capital India

As far as log report is concerned, the moment we detect some sort of cyber threat, there is an immediate need to define the list of priorities both critical and non critical and then act according to it.

S V SUNDER KRISHNAN

Chief Risk Officer, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company Limited

The concern pertaining to data security has grown tremendously in the recent times. It is important for all organisations to take up the issue and make it discussion friendly. The issue requires a top down approach. Despite the best possible measures the security in terms of data is never full proof however, the safety mechanism is perking up with time.

TECHNOLOGY PRESENTATION

SHASHANK BAJPAI

Chief Information Security Officer, ACKO General Insurance Ltd

BFSI sector is revolutionising as cloud era is dawning, multiple APIs are getting called and data is getting shared, technologies like machine learning and Artificial Intelligence is getting adapted. However, data breaches are occurring due to lope in implementation of the above mentioned technologies.

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Technology Presentation on Cyber Risk Mitigation Through Insurance: Evolving Coverages to Meet Emerging Risks

MANOJ KUMAR AS

Senior Vice President, Global Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd

There are a lot of risks in the financial sector that can bring several adverse effects. Not only monetary loss, it can also put severe litigations on the system. In this scenario, if your institution is insured, you have the peace of mind. Today, cyber liability policies have been tested across the globe. Its test report in India too carried out successfully.

The Banking and Finance Post

MARCH - APRIL 2018 37

CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

38 MARCH - APRIL 2018

GLIMPSES OF EXPO

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GLIMPSES OF AWARDS

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CONFERENCE REPORT 2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

MARCH - APRIL 2018 39

“Thank You”

CONFERENCE REPORT

2ND BFSI CLOUD & SECURITY SUMMIT

for joining us at the

SUMMIT,MUMBAI CONFERENCE | EXPO | AWARDS

We are overwhelmed with your contribution in making the congregation a success and extend our heartiest gratitude for your presence.

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INDUSTRY SPEAKS MAPMYINDIA

LOCATION INTELLIGENCE – ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT FOR BFSI Evolving technology trends under Digital India bring location intelligence to the forefront as an essential element of business processes in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector. Technology is a core enabler, helping banks and financial institutions achieve sustainable growth and curate personalised multi- channel customer engagement and satisfaction. The banking and financial services is focused on innovation to prepare for a technology-driven future. Location intelligence is one key driving trend for the ongoing digital transformation. Along with other contextual ingredients it is an important parameter for financial Institutions that help analyse data spatially to give better insights for potential market discovery. The focus is on defining driving growth factors, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing costs for the BFSI sector for business advantage. MapmyIndia has been working closely with the BFSI sector for nearly a decade. Leveraging on the best-in-class digital map data, Mapmyindia offers location based technology services and products and solutions across different platforms (web and mobile). The address standardisation and validation at granular level empowers banks and insurance companies with location verification, risk assessment and demographic profile of the applicants. It also helps in site selection of ATMs, branches and service delivery points based on location data and analytics. MapmyIndia’s tracking Application Programming Interface (APIs) are being widely used for workforce management. For effective deployment of workforce, MapmyIndia has developed WorkMate

42 MARCH - APRIL 2018

app, this enables any manager to see in real-time where and what each of his workforce are doing in the field. Based on the need, instructions can be relayed to one and all from his smartphone, instantly. Our rich granular datasets helps with better urban penetration and rural expansion. Our premium quality digital map data, APIs, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, location apps, are some GIS based solutions that can be provided for a wide range of applications for financial sector. Our IoT driven solutions for vehicle financing and insurance (for example, in the case of buyers of pre-owned vehicles) measure vehicle value against information like time, driving behavior and maintenance history. MapmyIndia has been at the forefront of introducing disruptive products and technologies that have been game changers. Some of the prominent products and solutions offered by the company are: MapmyIndia Maps: MapmyIndia’s digital map data, which is the foundation on which all MapmyIndia products and solutions are based, are India’s most comprehensive, exhaustive, detailed maps that offer unmatched coverage. MapmyIndia APIs: Access to powerful Map APIs for every user (individual or corporate) to integrate with their products and solutions to reduce servicing costs and increase customer satisfaction

MapmyIndia WorkMate: Workforce management solution to optimise field force for increased productivity MapmyIndia Customer Insight: Demographic and socio-economic data for Geomarketing and decision analysis Some key highlights of our solution for BFSI l Pan India Mapping of All Bank’s ATM and branches l Tracking of Cash carrying Vehicles l Display of branch and ATM attributes as part of the location on the map l Channel Optimisation l Site Selection l Location reference for mortgaging l Risk Management l Pan India Map coverage to reach to rural areas for micro financing l The locator services integrated with bank’s website l Geo Analytics ( for coverage and Gap Analysis) l Optimised field operations l Rich Granular data to complete the KYC/Compliance process  (Views expressed in this article are a personal opinion of MapmyIndia)

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE O N SINGH

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UNIVERSAL SOMPO GENERAL INSURANCE-ENSURING INSURANCE PENETRATION WITH INNOVATION Tell us about Universal Sompo General Insurance and its operations in India.

Universal Sompo General Insurance is driven by the mission to provide world class services and products to the customers and deliver stable returns for the shareholders. The company has always been a front-runner in identifying opportunities in extending insurance benefits to masses, says O N Singh, Chairman, Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).

44 MARCH - APRIL 2018

Universal Sompo General Insurance has been operating with a vision to emerge as a market leader in our chosen domain by winning customer confidence through superior value and continually enhancing the same. This philosophy has been engraved within the company to constantly drive Universal Sompo to enhance its innovative and customised risk solution offerings across customer segments utilising traditional as well as emerging distribution channels. Universal Sompo General Insurance has a bouquet of 137 Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) approved products. It has a mandate to extend Insurance coverage to rural and urban retail customers as well as corporate and Micro- Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) clients. Further, the product line extends across business segments like fire, engineering, marine, motor insurance, health insurance (both retail and group mediclaim), liability including cyber liability, personal accident policy including Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Crop Insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Universal Sompo has grown step by step in its 10-year journey. The company has always performed better than industry benchmarks in terms of growth as well as on key operating parameters. The company has achieved

Gross Premium of Rs 1,287.23 crore with a premium growth of 42.43 per cent as compared with industry growth of 32.43 per cent in 2016-17. The company takes immense pride in covering a total customer base of more than 1.10 crore of which 10,81,271 farmers are covered under Prandhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme and 46,32,223 are covered under Prandhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) in 2016-17. The company has been awarded with some of the distinguished awards like “Best Customer Service Provider of the Year” at 2nd Annual India Insurance Summit, “Fintelekt-Insurance Awards 2017 for Leadership in Claim Service”, “BFSI- Personal Line Broking Initiative of the Year” by ABP Network, “SkochOrder of Merit 2016” by Skoch Group for company’s various customer centric efforts in extending the benefits of insurance products to rural as well as urban customers.

How are the services of Universal Sompo different from other counterparts in this domain? How is information technology (IT) helping you in improving your delivery mechanism? Universal Sompo is driven by the mission to provide world class services and products to the customers and deliver stable returns for the shareholders. The company has always remained a front runner in identifying the opportunities in extending insurance benefits to masses.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE O N SINGH

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

The company was among the first insurers to partner with Common Services Centers (CSC) e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle under MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) under the Government of India to extend insurance benefits to rural India through Common Service Centres. The company was also front runner in identifying opportunities to tap Point of Sale persons to extend insurance benefits to underserved marginalised masses in semi-urban and rural areas. The extensive distribution network of our Partner Banks viz. Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Karnataka Bank along with various customer service interventions like 24/7 customer care operations and efficient and fast redressal of claim has made Universal Sompo a preferred Insurer in Retail General Insurance Domain. The company is leveraging Information Technology in a huge way to greatly enhance the insurance delivery mechanism whether in terms of its seamless connectivity with more than 7,500 Partner Bank Branches to its connectivity with Common Service Centers in the remotest rural hinterlands. The company has also developed M-POS, a mobile application for POS (Point of Sales) Channel to extend insurance coverage at the tip of the POS person thus helping in instant policy generation for its customers.

Universal Sompo is gradually evolving its distribution strategy. What is the growth strategy that your company is looking at? In its 10 years journey, Universal Sompo General Insurance has always maintained a focused approach towards striking a balance among growth, market share and profitability. Going forward, the company will ensure to improve its market share along with ensuring positive underwriting profit over next few

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years. The company is taking various initiatives towards brining efficiencies in customer servicing, operational support and claim management which will benefit our customers as well as help the company to improve its overall combined ratio. The company is also looking forward to raising additional funds through right issues which will help in charting the growth trajectory. It will also help with enhancing customer-centric initiatives and strengthening the distribution network. In terms of distribution network, the company has envisioned appointing 8,000 POS persons to solicit and extend insurance benefits to underinsured marginalised section of the society.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Universal Sompo General Insurance has been operating with a vision to emerge as a market leader in our chosen domain by winning customer confidence through superior value and continually enhancing the same. The company is also studying the feasibility of utilising Business Correspondents of the Partner Banks to extend risk solution products including micro-insurance to remotest and interior parts of rural India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government has a vision to empower people of semi-urban and rural areas. How is Universal Sompo planning to contribute for the cause?

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With a vision to empower people in semi urban and rural areas, the present government indeed has taken several initiatives in the recent times. The government has taken digital initiatives to empower rural India and ensured that Government services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure. From insurance perspective, the Centre took initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and has promoted Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and health schemes to benefit rural counterparts. Complementing the vision of the Government of India for rural empowerment, Universal Sompo General Insurance has participated in all government schemes initiated by the Government of India to benefit rural people.

The general insurance business is expected to grow faster as the economy is likely to improve here on. Kindly share the future plans of Universal Sompo. The General Insurance Industry shares a positive correlation with economic growth. Hence, as economic growth is expected to improve in next financial year, we believe general insurance segment will further pace up. Next year, our brand will be focusing towards modernising and transferring our internal system in terms of interaction with counterparties, customers and regulators. From business perspective, considering the growing demand, we will keep our focus on lucrative segment like Individual Health as well as Motor, as we are quite keen to increase our presence at pan- India via all the channels /mode of business acquisition. We are keen to evolve its distribution strategy by increasing its presence among online buyers. For this we will be focusing to take leverage new distribution channels (namely Common services centers (CSCs), POS (point of sales), Web aggregators) to increase insurance penetration in rural /semi urban India. ď&#x201A;&#x2DC;

MARCH - APRIL 2018 45

INDUSTRY SPEAKS NELITO SYSTEMS

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS NEED OF THE HOUR FOR NBFCs

oday , the regulations have become stricter. The cost of borrowing has increased and NBFCs are making their hay by focusing on niche markets. Hence, it has become crucial for NonBanking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to sharpen their business agility. Customers are vital to business and have become a focus area for NBFCs to differentiate. NBFCs all over are focusing on developing innovative products and also catering to low-income, urban customers in unorganised sectors. In such a scenario, it has become necessary for NBFCs to adopt business models which are powered by technologies that will facilitate the design and launch of tailored products quickly. To cater to this new-age customer, the NBFCs need to look beyond the regular and invest in analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities which will allow them to connect and cater to the customer in a personalised manner. Moreover, most public sector banks and some private banks are being gripped with bad loans for the last few years and it has presented a tremendous opportunity for NBFCs to step in with its offerings and aim for growth and business success. With the NBFC segment growing at a sharp rate in the last six years, (a credit growth Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.3 per cent compared to 21.4 percent by the traditional banking sector), the dynamics between traditional banks and NBFCs are changing rapidly. Hence, it is even more crucial that NBFCs bring in technology to boost their growth. It is an investment that is guaranteed to pay off in a big way. Here are five reasons why NBFCs could benefit greatly from technology:

Customer data acquisition and management

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Today, it is apparent that one of the major reasons that have lead to the rise of the NBFCs is the reduced risk appetite in public sector banks to lend money as they are keeping an eye on their bad loans, mounting debts and NPAs. A lot of times, NBFCs target the rejected applicants of the leading commercial banks along with the general population in rural areas. This is a huge opportunity for NBFCs to expand further and an understanding of their target audience could help them reach their goals. Technology is the only way that can help them accurately capture, analyse and leverage data about their current and potential customers.

business and has equipped all their onfield sales personnel with a tablet. This allows them to multi-task and handle various loan products efficiently on the spot, and in a cost effective manner. This is an ideal way to bring in new customers giving them every service and facility at their fingertip.

Better customer service offering Introducing customised products The NBFCs need to be on their toes and constantly draw up a host of strategies to reach their target audience. They need to think beyond the existing home loans, car loans and personal loans and focus on low income farmers or small business owners and need to continually bring out creative and tailored products. Technology would help to achieve their objectives of personalisation and flexibility that customers value.

Increased customer reach and expansion of customer base One advantage of technology is it helps to reach out to otherwise difficult to reach customers by giving them digital access to services. For example, Kolkata-based NBFC Magma Fincorp has incorporated technology to better focus on the rural

Text messages and email updates are a fantastic way to serve banking customers. With technology NBFCs could among other personalised messages also share loan bill payment reminders or send statements to customers.

Lower costs with digitisation Technology makes business operations and expansion much easier for NBFCs as the cost of administration becomes lower. Adopting technology, however, has been a struggle for smaller NBFCs due to the high cost. But the introduction of Cloud and SaaS-based models has made it easier. Today technology solutions are easily available on-demand and at affordable prices. ď&#x201A;&#x2DC; (Views expressed in this article are of Punit Jain, Chief Executive Officer, Nelito Systems Ltd.)

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INDUSTRY SPEAKS PENNANT TECHNOLOGIES

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

LENDING FACTORY TO ACCELERATE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACROSS LOAN LIFE CYCLE

The NBFCs have come a long way and now hold a significant ground in the Indian financial system. However, the fierce competition from Fintech innovations is posing formidable challenges to NBFCs, making it an imperative for the industry to learn and adapt to these disruptive technologies and gear up for the future, say Rama Krishna Raju and Pradeep Varma, the Founding Directors of Pennant, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

he duo says that the above mentioned dynamics paved the way for several new-age Solution Providers who can offer digital capabilities. The making good inroads into this arena, Pennant Technologies, a Hyderabad-based software company is extending a platform based software suite—Lending Factory. Supporting widest range of Lending Products across retail and corporate line of businesses in the Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFC) market, Lending Factory is a single solution, unlike most conventional product based systems that can only support single line of business or only few selected products. Pennant was selected by a top-tier tech savvy NBFC to replace its old lending system, within a few months of Lending

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Factory’s launch in the Indian market. With this marquee client under its fold, Pennant managed to win multiple deals with various NBFCs and one new-age bank. Rama Krishna Raju, Chief Executive Officer and Founding Director, says, “Financial organisations are innovating new business models to quickly structure and offer innovative products, adopting digital technologies to deliver products through the customer’s choice of channel with speedy turnaround times and automating all the processes across the life cycle of the loan to drive down operational costs enhancing operational efficiencies.” Pennant thoroughly factored all these business challenges and built the product with a proprietary future proof framework. Lending Factory’s platform

based approach is the differentiating feature that enables customers to configure any type of loan product be it a personal loan, auto loan, gold loan, education loan, business loan or a loan against property. “Our prudent approach in building our solution on open technologies enables the solution to scale up to any size and any volume. In addition Lending Factory’s technology agnostic, capability offers complete freedom to clients in choosing any platform, server, and database. These customer-centric features enable Pennant to implement Lending Factory either in-premise or completely on Cloud,” he adds. Adding to that, Founding Director, Pradeep Varma says, “Separating product definitions and business rules from processing by adopting the unique concept of functional factories helped us offer high-level of configurability. Also, our modular and componentised approach offers unlimited flexibility across loan lifecycle. This strategy helped us achieve our goal of Maximum Configuration and Minimal Customisation.” “The successful implementation of Lending Factory at top tier tech-savvy NBFC and also implementing the same as the core engine for their new endto-end digital-only delivery initiative leveraging the repository of Application Programming Interface (APIs) across the life cycle speaks about the future proof capabilities of our suite,” Varma adds. Looking over the horizon, Pennant envisions being a leader in the Lending vertical by continuously adding new functional capabilities to its platform. Keeping a close eye on the changing dynamics in technology, Pennant seeks to adapt to developments that offer distinctive features to continue to sustain competitive differentiation. 

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE RAHUL MODI

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES KEY TO INDIA’S SOCIAL, ECONOMIC RISE rural economic activities. These societies have helped the poor and indebted farmers to get out of poverty and clutches of the money lenders.

Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society showcased its success story on global stage during ‘Challenge Yourself to Think’ summit in Las Vegas, US. Tell us about this achievement and the way forward. It is a matter of immense pride that Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd, India’s largest credit co-operative society presented its success story on a global stage in front of industry leaders. Adarsh Credit narrated how the rural and semirural population of India is connected through our digital financial services. I along with my Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mr Himanshu Shah presented how Adarsh Credit integrated IBM’s technology into the Adarsh Money app in record time of just 12 weeks to provide our members and advisors state-of-the-art futuristic Adarsh Money Mobile App. Adarsh Credit was also the only organisation from India which got an opportunity to share its success story in Las Vegas and top industry leaders in global summit heard the inspiring story on how Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society originating from a very small city of Sirohi (Rajasthan) had achieved tremendous success by keeping digital transformation and technical upgradation at the core of its objectives.

The co-operative societies play a vital role for social and economic development in the country. Bringing innovation in alignment with digitisation, the Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society is working to bring sustainability and financial inclusion, says Rahul Modi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

How significant are the co-operative societies for the BFSI sector in India? Co-operative societies play a vital role in economic progress and social development of our country. The institution of a co-operative society provides support and sustainability to the

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Your organisation became the first and only co-operative society in India to partner Oxigen Services, a digital payments company for deploying micro ATMs for their agent. What prompted you to take this futuristic tech-driven step? Adarsh Credit’s partnership with Oxigen

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Services was game changer in the financial landscape of rural India. With Oxigen’s Micro ATM, Adarsh Credit will reach its 2020 target of acquiring 100,000 new villages that will become financially inclusive. Adarsh Credit, being a pioneer in the co-operative space, with 100 per cent of its business through a digital framework, will now be able to provide its advisors with Oxigen’s Micro ATM services, eKYC, virtual Rupay Card, AEPS, value added services and more. This strategic tieup with Oxigen is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directive for digitising the nation and promoting financial inclusion using Aadhaar and other digital modes.

Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society has tied up with Adobe to provide paperless financial services to its members .What more steps are you planning to take to promote digitisation? Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd’s tie up with Adobe was a very big step towards providing paperless financial services to our members. With the integration of Adobe Sign, an e-signature solution, to their documentation process, members of Adarsh Credit will be able to carry out financial services without the usage of physical KYC and provide e- signatures through smart phones for the online forms. Adarsh Credit is also working towards a safer and secure financial system in India through its implementation of blockchain solutions in partnership with BankChain. Blockchain is an emerging technology that has the potential to transform traditional business processes and the ways in which data is exchanged by consumers and financial institutions. 

MARCH - APRIL 2018 53

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INDUSTRY SPEAKS HDFC BANK

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

HDFC BANK — REVOLUTIONISING BANKING WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

he power of computing has grown exponentially over the years and with this the significance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) also amplified. Since its inception in 1950, the use of AI has percolated into our day–to–day reality and disrupted the way people experience banking and financial services. The HDFC Bank has also envisioned that AI with its disruptive capabilities will revolutionise the way banking services are provided to consumers and it is therefore among the few banks to have used AI to provide various services to customers. Also, to ride on its prime objective of becoming an “AI – enabled bank of the future”, there are numerous AI initiatives at the bank which are either live or at various stages of development. These initiatives span across functions like customer service, banking transactions, employee training and engagement, recruitment, operations, analytics and e-commerce and payments. The underlying mission of HDFC Bank is to enable AI backed services ranging from commerce to care that can fulfil all the needs of HDFC Bank as well as Non–Bank customers. Some of the key AI initiatives which are live include Electronic Virtual Assistant (EVA), Intelligent Robotic Assistant (IRA) - a humanoid robot, Recruit Bot and a social commerce chat bot on Facebook Messenger - HDFC Bank OnChat. With these solutions, we have been able to enhance the overall user experience of not only HDFC Bank customers but also Non – HDFC Bank customers. Our customer service chat bot – EVA solves over 6 lakh queries on monthly basis saving 20,000+ man hours per month. This engine has helped HDFC Bank to transform our digital customer

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service channel into a competitive asset. Innovative AI backed solutions are not limited to only EVA but we have also deployed a one–stop chat bot solution on Facebook Messenger called HDFC Bank OnChat. Currently, this conversational and interactive platform also has the capability to provide personalised solutions boasts of having 3,00,000+ unique users every month. It is the first chat bot based e–commerce and payments platform service via Social Media Channel and has been regarded as a ‘Success Story’ by Facebook. Our efforts in channelising AI backed solutions do not end there. HDFC Bank is also the first bank in India to introduce IRA – a humanoid robot for branch assistance. Launched at HDFC Bank’s branch in Mumbai, IRA services on an average 60 customers on a daily basis. The robot detects the presence of customers through vision sensors and answers queries/ guides them to the nearest counter. This has not only assisted the branch staff but has also added a delight factor to the customer’s experience at branches. Another disruptive innovation by HDFC Bank that paved the way for effective recruitment is its Recruit Bot. The recruit bot has the capability to identify the right candidate across functional and personal skill sets and is ideal for large scale recruitment drives.

The solution has helped in reducing the time to hire by up to 80 per cent. Although, we at HDFC Bank have taken a lead in implementing AI enabled solutions, AI being a new technology, will take considerable time to mature. Improvements in AI toward it becoming more natural than ‘artificial’ will help in increasing the overall efficiency and productivity of organisations at reduced costs. Employees will be trained and helped on how to upgrade their skill sets to make AI a part of our digital DNA. All customer facing roles will be enabled using cognitive customer agents whereas back–end processes will run on advisory bots, process automation bots and expert systems. Major internal processes that form the backbone of the bank will function on a hybrid model comprising digital and human workforce. As Ray Kurzweil, chief engineer for Google and famous futurist says “AI Will Not Displace Humans, It’s Going to Enhance Us”. AI will help us manage both internal and external customers much more effectively and help reduce our operational costs exponentially in the near future.  (Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are a personal opinion of Rajnish Khare and in no way any official statement and/or communication of any kind from HDFC Bank.)

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE ARVIND SONMALE

B F S I & C O R P O R AT E

EMPOWERING AGRI - INDUSTRY THROUGH TECH INNOVATIONS has been quite impressive in spite of the challenging environment and developments like demonetisation. Inspite of several impediments and lack of sustainable and adequate supportive funding back up, NBFCs have attained much higher growth rate and proven ability to innovate in recent years. The future role of NBFCs is praised to grow and holds high promise.

SAFL is the first NBFC in India providing only Agri- loans with a diverse range of financing options for almost every need of agricultural activity. It thrives towards making the farmers life ‘SAFAL’ (successful), says Arvind Sonmale, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sustainable Agro-commercial Finance Ltd. (SAFL), in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

The Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) have grown by 43 per cent yearon-year in Quarter 3 of 2017-18, says Microfinance Institutions Network. With this growth what do you think about the future of NBFCs in India? NBFCs over the years have played a vital role in the development of the economy, be it in financial intermediation in rural and semi-urban areas or financing activities that are engines of growth, such as transport, infrastructure, farm and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). NBFCs’ growth during the last two years

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SAFL is the first private sector NBFC in India providing Agri - loans to the customers. What milestones have you achieved by promoting a unique offering? SAFL is the first NBFC in India providing only Agri- loans with a wide and diverse range of financing options for almost every need of agricultural activity.SAFL’s launch is a new milestone in the thinly populated space of private sector financing of agriculture. SAFL’s initiative to finance micro-irrigation has not only conserved water, but also increased the crop yield.In its four and half years of business operations, SAFL has extended loans of over Rs 545 crores to more than 40,000 farmers.SAFL successfully introduced interest free/very low interest rate loans for the widows of farmers to improve the means of livelihood.SAFL has also, encouraged and supported farmers by financing the construction of farm ponds in line with Maharashtra Government.

As you are working primarily with the rural populace, how do you overcome the digital hindrances? Our efforts have always been to make the farmers life ‘SAFAL’ (successful). A farmer does not have access to basic amenities which makes it difficult for him to achieve productivity. Where there is a lack of basic amenities we can’t expect a digital infrastructure. To overcome the digital hindrances in common we try to use technology wherever, it reduces the time

and most of the other work is followed manually. E.g.: Sanction letters in case of two wheeler loans are issued within 30 minutes of time. The applications are scanned or photographed on smartphones which are then processed for sanction with the credit team. This way we use the technology to its best. All our products/ services require minimum documentation and all information is sent quickly over SMS.

What do you think about the level of technology implementation in NBFC domain? Definitely, due to technology and smartphones, today banking has become so easy and fast anyone can do it in just a matter of few minutes and the transactions are done in an efficient error proof manner and leaving a proper record.So many people are learning to depend on technology, and that’s why every business must leverage the power of technology now, including NBFCs. A study suggests that NBFCs must challenge the status quo in their business and find funds to invest into operating models with the potential to disrupt the industry. With the digital advance of policy initiatives and exponential increase in smartphone/Internet access, NBFCs need to think hard about tweaking their current business models to grow in a hybrid world of ‘digital plus physical’.

What are you plans in terms of pan-India expansion? SAFL only finances products which results in increased farm productivity and improvement in the economic betterment and lifestyle of the farmers. Hence SAFL operates only in the rural and semi urban geographies of India. Talking about the geographical expansion so far, SAFL has its Head Office in Mumbai, 56 offices in the state of Maharashtra, 8 locations in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh each. 

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