Leading worldwide provider of payment solutions, Ingenico International India Pvt. Ltd. has announced joining hands with Financial Inclusion Network and Operations (FINO) to help them deliver payment solutions under the microfinance schemes and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to the under-served and the un-banked sections in the country.
According to the details of the project, FINO would use the services of ‘bandhus’ or agents to reach out to the rural and far flung areas to carry out secure financial transactions for multiple banks, State and Central government social upliftment schemes and microfinance agencies with the help of Ingenico hand-held biometric POS terminals.
Over 25,000 Ingenico’s biometric hand-held POS terminals have been deployed by FINO till date out of which, over 7.000 successfully deployed in the last quarter of 2010 for NREGS. The deployment of terminals will continue during this year also.
FINO provides turnkey technological solutions to institutions such as banks, insurance companies, government social schemes, microfinance institutions and corporate enterprises, enabling them to take their financial products and services to the doorstep of millions of un-banked and under-banked households across India.
In order to make complete financial inclusion a reality, FINO relies on Ingenico’s technology for authentication and authorisation of the business correspondent and the customers, which represents one of the largest challenges of any financial inclusion effort. “Our ongoing collaboration with Ingenico has enabled us to provide world-class proven biometric technologies for delivering payment solution for financial institutions and MNREGA-like schemes, taking doorstep banking and government’s social scheme benefits to the underprivileged in the remotest parts of India,’’ Manish Khera, CEO, FINO said.
“We are very proud to be associated with FINO in efforts to propagate financial inclusion of the under-served and under-banked. This is a testimony of Ingenico’s leadership in the payment solutions space, even as we look at leveraging Ingenico’s world-class technologies and ideas to bring about tangible changes to society in general,’’ said Vivek Sagar, CEO, Ingenico International India.
