‘Our focus will be to build value beyond remittances’  

July 28, 2010

The global remittance market has been growing exponentially over the past few years and India is at the epicentre of this growth. Players in this business are looking to come out with a slew of new initiatives surrounding remittances. TimesofMoney, an India-based digital payment services company, is also at the forefront of this action and is planning to come out with a bouquet of services to help Indian migrants connect better with their families here. The president of TimesofMoney, Avijit Nanda, speaks with Moneylife's Sanket Dhanorkar in the second of a two-part series

Sanket Dhanorkar (ML): Which is the largest market for your company and where will your focus lie going forward?

Avijit Nanda (AN): North America is the biggest market for us. It's reflective of the fact that most of the Indian NRIs have migrated here. That's where most of the consumption of knowledge workers has happened. The NRI footprint is the strongest there. We also have UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. While we have coverage of about 24 countries today, these are our top markets. We will still continue to focus on these countries while improving product offerings and customer experience based on customer needs. Our product development team constantly researches customer needs and behaviour so that we are able to quickly translate that into a product offering through partnerships and alliances. So while we also focus on newer geographies to get more customers, our focus will also be towards trying to achieve depth in each of these countries. While the overall market is about $58 billion, the online space is just about 20% of that. Out of this $58 billion, at least 70% comes from North America in terms of volume. In terms of value, about 60% comes from the Gulf.

ML: What new products are you planning to come up with?

AN: Since we are an Internet-based service provider it is easy for us to reach out to clients. We are not dependent too much on physical infrastructure or capabilities to reach out. We do pilots on the basis of which we tweak our product offering. One such product which is in the pipeline is the bill-pay product. The idea behind it is that remitters need to send money for several reasons. There is this bouquet of non-financial services that we are looking at. We have an offering called Window2India which provides an NRI an opportunity to connect to India, much beyond remittances - a connect to his parents in the form of gifting or healthcare planning for parents, etc. Health is a very emotional play with immigrants there because they are not around to look after the wellbeing of their parents. We also offer services around investment advisory for asset classes like property. Our property services team researches real-estate solutions available in residential and commercial verticals. We give them end-to-end solutions of walking them through various options, providing background research on builders. Beyond that there are smaller services where NRIs can send money for charity or religious causes, donate money to their alma-mater or even make utility bill payments on behalf of parents. That is a big connect we are trying to establish. This is part of the BillPay2India service which we will launch shortly.

Our focus will be to build value beyond remittances. This is why we continue to focus on non-remittance solutions to surround the customer with. Our services should become a one-stop-shop for all his into-India requirements.

ML: Do you have any plans to launch mobile platform based services?

AN: Yes, we are working on the capabilities for having a mobile based platform and the modalities for the same. For example, would a customer have the appetite to transfer $3,000? We have done some research. We have the advantage of being able to offer similar solutions to the domestic market in India. We will cross that and make it a cross-border solution. At this point of time, regulations do not permit us to do so. But we have the capability. We are working with the RBI. We should be able to offer the service as and when the regulator allows us.

ML: Will this product be something along the lines of M-PESA, the mobile payment service launched in Kenya? (M-PESA is a service allowing users to transfer money using a mobile phone. Kenya is the first country in the world to use this service, which is offered in partnership between Safaricom and Vodafone).

AN: M-PESA is a financial inclusion story. Kenya is a hugely under-banked economy. People are also at risk while carrying cash - it may get stolen or robbed. That's where the concept of converging value into a mobile phone came into being. This is a domestic solution. It is not yet a cross-border payment solution. We are trying to launch a similar service in a while in India as well, as a domestic commerce and money transfer solution, as and when regulators allow us.

Other than the regulatory hurdle, there are some other challenges as well. With the exception of mPISA, there have been many pilots, but no full-fledged customer rollouts. The challenge here is to get the customer excited to adopt. The preferred mode is cash. We have moved people from cash to credit cards to bank account payments to the Internet. Now, everything is converging on the mobile phone. It is critical that the ecosystem has to be built. Such a solution involves multiple parties, each having a significant role to play. So just having a customer is not sufficient. Once you have money in your mobile phone, you must have usability - you should be able to shop, eat out or order and pay out of the mobile phone. If it is just about giving your customer an ATM or debit card, then he might as well do it from his bank account. Then there is nothing fancy about getting a mobile phone involved. That is not a mobile-wallet solution. That is, using the mobile to do a transaction like one does with Internet banking. So all these factors - regulatory, customer acceptability, technology and ecosystem - have to converge. Adoption is not going to come overnight. It is a long-term story. The customer will have to be shown the value in using such a service. The regulator is also aware and concerned about how such services can be provided to the customers while safeguarding their interest. Mobile service providers are also looking at creating an ecosystem.

ML: What other challenges do you face in this business?

AN: While on the one hand, the overall remittance market is growing, the online category is only 20%. The biggest challenge is getting consumers to adopt such services. People have been habituated to do wire transfers through banks. While it is a challenge, it is an opportunity also. If you are able to establish a proof of concept with these users and get them on board, they will never go back once they use the system. They see the value demonstrated. So the challenge is how to break the mindset and get the customers to adopt such superior services. The other challenge is outside the India story. As a brand, how do we connect with clients outside India like the Mexicans or the Filipinos, for instance. We need to try and engage with these clients. — Sanket Dhanorkar