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Our Bureau

AUCTION SWIPE

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Bangalore March 7 Fruit and vegetable traders in Bangalore can now swipe their way to the Safal auction floor smartly.

Thanks to the smart card solution developed by the Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd (FINO) in collaboration with IBM.

The solution has been deployed at Bangalore-based Janalakshmi Social Services, an urban micro-finance institution, which caters to around 40,000 families.

The smart card will enable traders, who have availed themselves of financial assistance from Janalakshmi, to participate in fruit and vegetable auctions at Safal outlets. Traders, with these smart cards, will have anytime access to the trading floor without having to carry cash or resort to expensive loan arrangements with moneylenders.

Transaction Costs

"We have large number of customers with very large transaction volumes, and small ticket sizes," said Mr Ramesh Ramanathan, Chairman, Janalakshmi Social Services. "Our audit and control systems need to match these volumes, and our transaction costs need to be low enough to enable low-cost delivery. None of this will be possible without technology," he added.

The solution will facilitate online and offline transactions at affordable cost while reducing paperwork in the bidding process for traders at Safal outlets. The FINO technology platform for microfinance institutions comprises a core-banking solution, which will host the customer accounts.

Microfinance Sector

Customers can gain access to the system by using biometric enabled multi-function personalised smart card.

The smart cards would serve as proof of identity and electronic passbook for the customers. The FINO proposed to offer this solution to over 200 such entities involved in serving the micro sector in India and abroad.

In addition to hosting the core banking solution, IBM will also provide support services for posting transactions and managing FINO's data centre, said Mr Swarup Choudhury, Director-FSS, IBM Asean/South Asia.

"The microfinance sector has seen a tremendous upsurge in recent time. There is a huge potential in this domain & we see ourselves branching out to serve many more unbanked geographies through our association with MFIs" said Mr Manish Khera, CEO, FINO.

The FINO will also create a customer database, thus bringing the beneficiaries into mainstream banking.

In addition to loans, the card would also allow channel partners to offer a suite of products such as investments, remittances, credit, life and general insurance and derivatives.

More Stories on : Technology | Horticulture/Fruits & Vegetables | Karnataka

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