Fino Payments Is Considering Becoming A Small Finance Bank
After five years of operation, Fino Payments Bank is eager to grow into a small finance bank, according to managing director Rishi Gupta.
The subsidiary of Fino Paytech, which has its headquarters in Navi Mumbai, is supported by well-known investors including Bharat Petroleum, ICICI Group, Blackstone, IFC, Intel, and LIC, among others.
After Paytm Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank, and Airtel Payments Bank, the business began operations in July 2017 with 410 branches.
After obtaining a license from the Reserve Bank, Fino—which previously provided remittance services—converted the majority of its Fino Money Mart locations into bank branches.
Additionally, the only lender in this market that is traded on exchanges is Fino.
“Having reached the required five years of business, we are qualified for an upgrade to a small finance bank from a regulatory and compliance standpoint. The conversion is supported by our board as well, and we will shortly submit a proposal to the RBI in this respect, Gupta told PTI.
Gupta said that from a capital and capability standpoint, the firm is too tiny to convert immediately to a full service commercial bank, which is why it should stop at a small financing bank rather than a full service bank.
According to him, the bank will expand its operations while waiting for the update, concentrating on partnerships with fintech companies as part of the Fino 2.0 program to create digital assets and improve digital offers.
It already has a partnership with Hubble, which is financed by Sequoia Capital, to create a spending account that gives clients greater value for their lifestyle expenditures.
In addition to spending and saving up to 10% on every transactions made through the account, people may park their money.
According to Gupta, the business is partnering with NBFCs from the retail lending sector as a payments partner, and such loans stay on the NBFC’s books. “We’re looking at more such tie-ups in the fintech space,” he said.
He said, “We’ve already partnered with two of these shadow banks—Kredbee and Myshublaon.”
Its sales increased by 13% to Rs 323 crore in Q4FY23, and its net income increased by 25% to Rs 22 crore, with net margin increasing to 6.8% from 6.2%.
From Rs 724 crore in FY22 to Rs 1,200 crore in FY23, its deposits increased by 66%, of which 20% are the affordable Casa deposits.
According to Gupta, the bank added 2.5 lakh clients every month on average in FY24, bringing the total number of customers to 71 lakh.
He said that they recently started providing recurring deposits and that they are also developing a virtual debit card. According to Gupta, the pipeline also includes gold loans, mutual funds, and health insurance.
