Bengaluru, Karnataka, India – India’s digital inclusion journey for Financial services has progressed at breakneck speeds with fintech players entering the foray. While the homebound have reaped the benefits of the developments in the financial space, the obvious next step is getting the NRIs up to speed.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeks to do just that, adding fuel to the fire of NRI financial convenience. In its latest update on the fifth cohort of RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox, the central bank announced that digital account opening for NRIs is one of the products being put to the test, with key fintech players being given the reins to the new development avenues.
Fi Money (www.fi.money) has been granted the privilege to test the solution in a regulated environment to help drive this new development in the financial services space. Now, what does this mean for you?
Peering Into the NR’I’
Fi Money’s advent in digitising the savings account signup process is now being tested for onboarding NRIs too. The vision to be realised is that of a fully paperless, all-digital experience where NRE/NRO accounts can be created outside of the country, all within a span of 30 mins (subject to the availability of all documents) via mobile device. While this involves significant cost savings in terms of the workforce and resources spent on physical documents/identity verification, sustainability is also an added benefit.
Strides are being made to satiate the NRI need for a convenient, safe, and seamless financial experience, with all roads leading to new-age banking with all of the ease it brings with it. It has far-reaching windfalls in money transfers in the form of foreign remittance to India from hotspots like the UAE.
Revamping the NRI-Financial Institution Relationship
What Fi’s aiming for is to assist with cutting down a major chunk of account creation times: getting it done in 30 minutes tops is quite the feat. One can almost hear the NRIs breathing a massive sigh of relief. It’s the quick commerce delivery ideology applied to finance, where wait times are now a thing of the past. It’s a new dawn for financial services. The doors this will open for NRIs will become more evident as this gets tested out in key NRI markets.
The revolutionary UPI which switched up the spending landscape almost overnight, is also one of the critical technologies now being opened up to NRIs. The NRE/NRO accounts under this newly designed workflow — currently under testing through Fi in partnership with Federal Bank — is expected to be UPI-ready. Now, sending money back to the roots is about to be as simple as scanning & paying for chai.
The red tape that the NRIs have tangled and tripped over too many times will soon be a thing of the past. This shake-up promises more action in NRI spends. It’s exciting times ahead for the entire Indian economy.
Looking Ahead
To maximize value for users of these new digital accounts, NRE accounts also promise tax-free interest. Every new NRE account manifests a virtual Visa Platinum Fi-Federal debit card issued by Federal Bank in partnership with Fi Brand Pvt. Ltd., for instant online use and with a super simple two-tap activation process to set up a PIN.
More importantly, all of Fi’s innovative tech advancements are expected to be rolled out to all users at the time of launch, something the NRIs should be looking forward to getting their hands on – from money management and analysing tools to be in complete control of one’s money, to investments in term deposits and automated payments to one’s favourite subscription service.
Currently, customers are being onboarded to this process in a controlled closed user group to fully test out the efficacy of the solutions pitched.
On successful completion of this pilot, NRIs may just get a lot closer to home. While video-calling softened the void of their absence at home, the movement didn’t catch on to all other aspects of their lives – until now.
Financial advancements for the NRI bring with it a fervour that could potentially catch on and bring a lot more aspects of the NRI life up to speed. There’s a lot riding on Fi’s moonshot, and we expect them to go full steam ahead.
