<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/12/Blog-1.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="253">2022 is drawing to a close. And this year's last star of the month series is here!So, buckle up folks!Pave the way for Aditya Narasimhan, our VP of Product and Client Delivery.A table tennis coach, superjock, and fintech product delivery champion, Aditya is an inspiration to many. Master at the art of work-life synergy, this sportive M2Peer is a staunch believer of the fact that life never stops teaching, and he must never stop learning.Curious to know what makes Aditya shine? We were too.We got into a candid conversation with him to uncover his secret to success. But what we heard was even more amazing.Spoiler alert: Fun revelations ahead!Here you go!<h2 class="heading-node" id="t9kuaqxvj" style="text-align: justify">How do you usually start your workday?</h2>Learning is my passion. Each day I look forward to greater learning. I start my workday with simple prepping that involves breaking targets into smaller, digestible bytes and jotting down pending tasks in my to-do list. Then I get into action by completing a couple of tasks and sip heavenly coffee with a sense of accomplishment.Later I sync up with my team, understand and discuss their queries, ensuring that there is constant interaction irrespective of whether its work, fun, or travel.<h2 class="heading-node" id="cc258asf0" style="text-align: justify">What are your main responsibilities as VP - Product and Client Delivery?</h2>I recently moved to the role of leading development and delivery of Fleet Payments product. My responsibility here is to build the product by collaborating with various stakeholders like banks, fintechs, aggregators, and regulators.Hailing from a background in banking and commercial vehicle finance, it is exciting for me to blend my experience to create innovative payments methods around FASTag, fuel, and driver expenses. I enjoy helping commercial vehicle businesses by providing a bankable financial layer to endorse products like fleet payments management for fleet owners, fuel and toll credit systems for lenders, and neobanking for drivers.<h2 class="heading-node" id="a8gouebna" style="text-align: justify">How have you grown through the years as an M2Peer?</h2>It was a big gamble for me to join M2P. And I’m loving every second spent in the office. It's been a little more than 40 months in this organization. The experience has been great.I am thankful for being one of the first set of hires in Business Development (BD) and Product roles. Probably the only handful of people to have experienced the BD role, implementation, account management, bank interaction, and product development. I feel both proud and humbled to have contributed to all victories and new learnings.<h2 class="heading-node" id="dkrxqjhcj" style="text-align: justify">Is there a quote/saying that motivates you?</h2>Being a sports person, there are many quotes that motivate me. The most addictive one is this.‘The more you sweat in practice, the lesser you bleed in the battle.’And this is something I experience and correlate with M2P. They constantly re-engineer to improve the client’s experience. And so, we manage and thrive irrespective of the disruption.My next favorite quote is this from Benjamin Franklin.&nbsp;‘Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.’And finally, another one of my favorite sayings is, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’<h2 class="heading-node" id="znst90n7h" style="text-align: justify">What's that one thing your colleagues don't know about you?</h2>I am usually an open book. However, there is some behind-the-scene action I’d like to share now.I enjoy acting and have played a few roles in Tamil cinema and soaps during my college days.<h2 class="heading-node" id="qwueyr54m" style="text-align: justify">Have you played a practical joke in college/school?</h2>Oh yes. I was a total prankster during college. Here's one of the pranks I recall.Now this was the time when pizzas were delivered to a location over just a call. My group of friends and I sneaked into the staff room when no one was around and ordered 3 large pizzas in the name of the principal from the landline there. It became a huge embarrassment to the school, and the principal had to pay for it. However, the information was leaked, and we were caught a week later. 😊<h2 class="heading-node" id="s7z5uoq8h" style="text-align: justify">What inspires you the most about M2P?</h2>The team of founders, across M2P and the recently acquired brands. Their quality of giving complete freedom with responsibility inspires me the most. Other inspirational traits M2Peers exhibit are great respect, constant learning, and ownership over their jobs.<h2 class="heading-node" id="zdoyk0bf0" style="text-align: justify">What's your idea of a perfect day?</h2>For a day to be perfect, it must be filled with as many insights as possible. And that makes me look forward to the next day.<h2 class="heading-node" id="hv0buv63g" style="text-align: justify">What was your career path before joining M2P, and how has it changed?</h2>Right from my school and college days, I was a passionate table tennis player and competed at the national level. So, during my master's degree, I was conflicted between going pro in table tennis or taking up a campus offer from Federal Bank.It was like a toss of a coin, and I’ve never regretted my decision.&nbsp;I started my career with Federal Bank and moved on with Cholamandalam Finance in the commercial vehicle lending space. That’s when I got introduced to M2P.&nbsp; My journey as an M2Peer has been both blissful and exciting so far!<h2 class="heading-node" id="blcy2d9vd" style="text-align: justify">What are your hobbies/interests?</h2>I’ve still kept my passion for Table Tennis alive. I coach these days and participate in events representing M2P, be it a corporate, state, or national event.I also train the Tamil Nadu Senior State Table Tennis Team every year. For this reason, I am grateful to M2P for allowing me to pursue my passion.<h2 class="heading-node" id="mjhb0wdve" style="text-align: justify">Anything else you want to share about M2P?</h2>M2P is an incredible place to learn and grow. You need to be curious and updated on the regulations, bank strategies, and fintech ideas to make necessary changes to your products and platforms. M2P has come a long way in identifying problems and developing innovative approaches to address them. This marks a significant milestone in its journey.I am grateful for the faith and exposure that M2P has offered me. I look forward for the great journey ahead.Kudos to all M2Peers!Stick around, until we get back with an awesome story of another M2P star.<a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights directly to your inbox.Follow us on&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a>&nbsp;for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.

Meet Aditya Narasimhan, our Product Delivery Champ

Transform Digital Onboarding with VKYC Solutions

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/11/Star-of-the-month_Star-of-the-Month-Rajesh-Word-Press.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="447">The Star of the Month series is back! This November, we shine the spotlight on Srikrishna Thota, our business development champion. A shuttler and a movie buff, Srikrishna is a go-getter with a penchant for identifying strategic opportunities, nurturing relationships, and closing deals. His love for goal setting, learning, and exploring has enabled him to grow in leaps and bounds. As we spoke to him about what makes him the star he is, he took us along his amazing five-and-a-half-year journey from being a marketing executive to becoming a business development ninja at M2P. Curious to know what makes him a star M2Peer? Then, just swipe down. You may even find his secret to success.<h2 class="heading-node" id="466swiyhx" style="text-align: justify">How do you usually start your workday?</h2>I believe health is wealth. So, I start the day with a brisk 45-minute jog, which keeps me energized and productive. Then I catch up on current events and kickstart my work mode with a cool to-do list where I factor in client calls and meetings for the day. After that, I connect with my team to ensure we clear roadblocks and thunder into business expansions.<h2 class="heading-node" id="igiq7f834" style="text-align: justify">What are your main responsibilities at work?</h2> My major responsibilities include setting business expansion goals, formulating and steering strategies for revenue growth, overseeing lead generation and sales, negotiating client pricing, and implementing new market initiatives. Then I train and motivate my team to implement high-growth strategies and help them remove blockers if any.<h2 class="heading-node" id="tep698r34" style="text-align: justify">How have you grown through the years as an M2Peer?</h2>My journey as an M2Peer began five years ago with Syntizen. Learning curves were immense and still prove to be challenging, considering the market dynamics. I had a brief stint as a marketing executive in a media company before I started out as a BD manager at Syntizen. The role opened great learning opportunities in dealing with challenging clients, boosting sales, and making sure a solid foundation was laid for the growth of the business. Being in the startup environment, I was given the capacity to work in several roles and responsibilities. My hard work, consistent learning, and attitude to take responsibility provided the impetus for me to move forward very quickly. Learning new things every day is something I liked doing as a student and at work. I'm grateful to everyone for their understanding, constant support, and willingness to teach me new things. Learning is the biggest secret that made me grow over the years.<h2 class="heading-node" id="ufeqbbclb" style="text-align: justify">Is there a quote/saying that motivates you?</h2>I am passionate about learning. So, these quotes motivate me. “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” —&nbsp;Anthony J. D’Angelo Nonetheless, it’s the people around me that inspire me the most.<h2 class="heading-node" id="yuahvk4wp" style="text-align: justify">What’s that one thing your colleagues don’t know about you?</h2> I’ve been an open book most of my life. If there is a secret, then it is meant to be kept so.<h2 class="heading-node" id="qpxd42ywn" style="text-align: justify">Have you ever played a practical joke in your school/college days?</h2> Not actually.<h2 class="heading-node" id="9fz75gezh" style="text-align: justify">What inspires you the most about your workplace?</h2>My colleagues inspire me every day, especially the founders. I'm lucky enough to get the opportunity to work with them from day one. I’ve been with the organization through thick and thin, and the experiences have moved me to excel both in my personal and professional life. Thanks to my colleagues and founders for all the inspiration and support. &nbsp;Special thanks to Mr. Siddharth, who is such a lovely person to work with. He is very supportive and never stops motivating me. M2P is a great place for all new entrants to learn and develop their careers.<h2 class="heading-node" id="ya6vt0650" style="text-align: justify">What’s your idea of a perfect day?</h2> My day will be perfect when I close the best deals and contribute towards revenue and profits.<h2 class="heading-node" id="vue9fxu95" style="text-align: justify">What are your hobbies/ interests?</h2> I enjoy playing badminton and catching up on movies. Whenever I get free time, I reach out to spend quality time with family and friends.<h2 class="heading-node" id="k9pmhxvj8" style="text-align: justify">Anything else you want to share with your peers?</h2>I’m glad that Syntizen has joined the M2P family. The organization has grown tremendously over the years and still has a lot to achieve! Here are my recommendations to fellow M2Peers who are looking to achieve goals in life.<ul class="list-node" id="mg6g46abz"><li>Internal motivation is the key</li><li>Don’t depend on anyone</li><li>Try to handle any situation on your own</li><li>Learn from your mistakes and improve</li></ul>Cheers to the M2P family! <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights directly to your inbox.Follow us on&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a>&nbsp;for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.

Meet Srikrishna Thota, our Industrious M2Peer

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/11/BNPL-Issuer-Th.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="296">The global ecommerce payments industry is constantly evolving to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the customer. With the pandemic fueling digital commerce, flexible payment options have become an element of convenience in online shopping. What started with basic debit/credit card payments now includes internet banking, e-wallets, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), EMI, and more. Among these, <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/factors-and-psychology-behind-the-great-bnpl-allure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BNPL</a> is one of the most popular payment choices as it enhances the customers’ purchasing power.<h2 class="heading-node" id="vhq15h9fq">BNPL Footprint in India</h2>India is a budget-driven country, and BNPL is where financial inclusion meets budgeting. The country’s association with <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/bnpl-the-rising-fintech-star/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BNPL</a> has been on an upward trajectory since 2021, owing to the rising adoption of ecommerce platforms among the country’s large youth demographic. Currently, India has around 20–25 million BNPL users, and it is likely to reach 100 million by 2026, given the magnitude of its demand and inclusivity.&nbsp;<h2 class="heading-node" id="8dowitkj2">Challenges for BNPL Issuers</h2>In recent years, competition in the BNPL space has intensified, with incumbents going beyond their horizons to develop new, sustainable business models and traditional payments companies deploying their own models to stay relevant in the market. This not only unlocked the purchasing power and helped customers manage their finances by accessing affordable and low-cost credit, but also expanded the market for BNPL products. On the other hand, the vying put significant pressure on the <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/six-profitable-bnpl-business-models-to-unlock-infinite-value/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BNPL</a> companies to scale quickly. The role of BNPL lenders does not stop with just issuing credit lines to consumers. They ought to partner with fitting merchants and large aggregators to offer appropriate payment plans, empowering smooth transactions and superior customer experience. Let’s look at the challenges that every <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/how-can-lenders-overcome-challenges-in-deploying-bnpl-solutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BNPL</a> issuer must manage/address immediately.<ul class="list-node" id="8qvy9xw6r"><li>Onboarding of multiple merchants and aggregators</li><li>Customizing solutions for each merchant based on ticket size and lending rules</li><li>Managing end-to-end transactions such as billing, settlements, and refunds</li><li>Understanding the payment flow to increase the success rate</li><li>Handling schemes, promotions, and subventions</li><li>Analyzing and managing risks</li><li>Integrating multiple stakeholders to enable a number of checkout options</li></ul>Partnering and working with a fintech that has a deep understanding of the market can help BNPL issuers set up the right mix of merchants and aggregators, which is the key to make BNPL work at checkout.Keeping this in mind, we at <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/buy-now-pay-later/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">M2P</a> built a robust Merchant Acquiring &amp; Payment Processing Platform. The platform is an exemplification of features that help improve checkout financing, boost merchant experience, promote sustainable growth, and amplify the acceptance rate of BNPL at checkout.<h2 class="heading-node" id="ub1c3819a">Merchant Acquiring &amp; Payments Platform</h2>Our Merchant Acquiring &amp; Payments platform comes integrated with our BNPL stack that allows issuers to onboard merchants (online or offline) and payment aggregators instantly and integrate on checkout flow to go live in minutes. The platform is designed to scale with the best payment flows for higher customer acceptance and to support end-to-end checkout experience for all types of BNPL products like checkout EMIs and one-click payments. In addition, it offers complete transparency and control to the issuers in the merchant acquiring and payment processes.&nbsp;Thus, creating a win-win situation for all.&nbsp; Here is a quick overview of what our platform can do.<ol class="list-node" id="hj8oxq8fg"><li>Frictionless and Instant Onboarding: The platform enables automated DIY onboarding with built-in validations and operations that comply with the maker-checker workflows to establish frictionless, real-time onboarding. It facilitates instant DIY and assists onboarding for all types of merchants (online or offline) and Payment Aggregators. This allows merchants across geographies to do business on a single platform.</li><li>&nbsp;Supports all credit products: The platform supports all credit products on merchant checkout, like low-ticket convenience spends and EMI. This creates a robust interoperable shopping environment that renders flexible and smooth checkout experience, thereby augmenting customer loyalty, resulting in lesser cart abandonment, improved average order value (AOV) and transaction size, and increased sales. Such interoperability will significantly increase profits by creating new revenue channels for all parties involved. &nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Easy developer integration: Developer friendly <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/api-the-power-that-drives-new-age-banking-ecosystems/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">APIs</a>, SDKs and plugins with a dedicated test environment to ensure merchants go live in minutes with minimal development effort. &nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Feature packed merchant dashboard: The platform empowers merchants to manage transactions, refunds, settlements, reconciliations, disputes, and much more from one single dashboard. This substantially improves operational efficiency and supports easy reconciliation.&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Secure &amp; Compliant: The platform is <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/pci-dss-a-quick-guide-to-its-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PCI DSS</a> Level 1 Compliant and regular internal security audits are carried out to ensure that the systems are compliant, and data is safe. It has an in-built fraud and risk management module to protect your business and customers from fraudulent activities.&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Reduces cost and time: Traditionally, reports are manually generated, involving extensive manpower, time, effort, and money. Our platform’s automated billing, settlement reports, and reconciliation reports will reduce the operational cost and time consumed in monitoring and generating the reports. In addition, it also radically reduces the cost and a resource drain entailed in integrating payment methods into a merchant’s checkout. &nbsp;</li></ol><h2 class="heading-node" id="lat8t529s">What differentiates M2P's BNPL solution from others?</h2>Our BNPL stack comes with an in-built Merchant Acquiring &amp; Payment Processing system. It is a meld of seamless onboarding and merchant management system, integrated payments, refund processing, and risk governance. It facilitates multiple merchant or payment aggregator onboarding, merchant KYC, approval, and bank account addition workflow to assist in settlement and reconciliation. In addition, it enables merchants to run campaigns, cashback and rewards integrations for each transaction, dispute management and refunds management, and merchant plug-ins. Our transaction risk management runs a dynamic MCC/MID check for each transaction, limit management per merchant, and velocity checks for transactions. It also provides a comprehensive fund settlement and report module to generate T+1 settlement with merchants and detailed MIS reports and analytics based on the user behavior. In retrospect, with only 4% of the total population opting the pay later option, India's BNPL journey has a long way to go. Nevertheless, given the flexibility and inclusivity, the sector is steadily gaining ground in the country's financial ecosystem. It gives merchants of all sizes a chance to expand their customer bases to increase their average order values and sales. Want to be a market leader in BNPL? Write to us at <a class="link" href="mailto:business@m2pfintech.com">business@m2pfintech.com</a><a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe</a> to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights directly to your inbox. &nbsp; Follow us on <a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a> and <a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a> for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.

Simplifying Acquisitions and Payments for BNPL Issuers

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/11/Fleet-Drive-Blog-2-01.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="447">Logistics is the backbone of any growing economy. In India, the sector is valued at $250 billion and is expected to grow at 8% YoY to reach $330 billion by 2025. The road-based fleet industry, holding over <a class="link" href="https://rmi.org/insight/fast-tracking-freight-in-india-a-roadmap-for-clean-and-cost-effective-goods-transport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70% overall share</a> in freight transportation, is a synergy of about 15 million operational commercial vehicles that employ 20 million personnel. The upswing in technological innovations and government policies drive the fleet industry on the road toward digitalization.<h2 class="heading-node" id="m5ns2cs4k" style="text-align: justify">Growth and modernization of fleet industry</h2>Fleet businesses experienced significant revenue growth in the past few years for two primary reasons. One, the evolution of fleet management systems that enabled digital solutions like telematics-based route optimizations and the emergence of fleet aggregators. Fleet management systems have radically disrupted the rather traditional fleet industry by integrating modern technologies and services into the value chain. According to recent reports, fleet management systems as an industry is estimated to grow 14% yearly to 6.8 million units in 2025. As the current market penetration is hanging around 10% for the entire commercial vehicle industry, the growth potential is tremendous. The emergence of fleet aggregators has enabled seamless order and demand management and has generated great opportunities to stabilize and monitor productivity leading to sustainable profitability and growth. And two, the government of India had initiated several digital policies such as FASTag-based toll collection, digital e-way bills, and compulsory installation of GPS devices in commercial vehicles to tap into the day-to-day fleet operations data.<h2 class="heading-node" id="19bv0yegi" style="text-align: justify">Key operational challenges</h2>In spite of the brisk progression in digital adoption, the fleet industry grapples with operational inefficiencies and ineffectual resource utilization. Not all fleet operators have access to technology that helps them control costs and enhance operational excellence, productivity, and profitability. In this article, let's review the top challenges of fleet businesses and how we can help resolve the pain points. <h3 class="heading-node" id="1tw7390n0" style="text-align: justify">Truck owner&nbsp;fragmentation </h3>80% of the trucks running in the country are owned by small vendors with a maximum fleet of five or fewer trucks. These small fleet owners are outside the purview of digital tools and analytics. They lack a&nbsp;centralized platform for evaluating trip data to optimize cost and make better decisions to promote overall development and profitability. <h3 class="heading-node" id="gc9jqny5b" style="text-align: justify">Multiple stakeholders </h3>The mandates of the Indian government and ongoing digitization efforts have detangled some of the essential knots for the fleet business. However, onboarding and managing the fleet system is still a hassle. For example, FASTag wallet, fuel payments, <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/kyc-suite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KYC</a> of drivers, and vehicle registration on the Telematics Platform are arduous tasks involving multiple stakeholders such as Fleet Aggregators, Transporters, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), Banks, and National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC).Further, though the fleet payments ecosystem renders numerous digital payment solutions, they are essentially decentralized. This makes it impossible for the fleet operators to view or manage such payments/expenses under one roof. For instance, payment cards for fuel, toll booth payments via FASTag, and other miscellaneous expenses paid (via diverse modes) ought to be handled individually. <h3 class="heading-node" id="tr3d1qtao" style="text-align: justify">Capital allocation </h3>India has the largest road network covering about 98,000 km of National Highways, which is just 2% of the overall road network in the country. But 40% of the total traffic is concentrated on these highways. Nevertheless, the Indian commercial vehicle covers 300 km a day, which is relatively low compared to the global average of 500-800 km a day. A sizeable portion of this journey (~40%) is dead miles, implying trucks travel without load yet have some capital allocated for the return trip. This is done in anticipation of new orders during the return journey; otherwise, they risk missing out on orders due to a longer lead time in getting the capital allocated and the ideal vehicle at the pickup location. Due to the dynamic nature of freight orders, the capital allocated to a vehicle is not in line with the capital required for optimal utility. <h3 class="heading-node" id="bsbf6muja" style="text-align: justify">Limited access to credit&nbsp; </h3>There is a momentous improvement in the fleet industry due to the private sector participation in fleet aggregation and telematics services and government initiatives. However, lenders don't have complete access to payments and cashflows handled by the fleet owners. This results in inefficient credit decisions. For example, lenders have limited or no visibility to real-time reports in terms of daily distance covered, transactions on fuel &amp; FASTag, etc., per vehicle. This leaves lenders with inadequate information on vehicle capital utilization,&nbsp;which in turn results in inefficient credit decisions and low participation in providing working capital for fleet operations.<h2 class="heading-node" id="gjsxze3ag" style="text-align: justify">How can our centralized fleet platform help?</h2><a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/fleet-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">M2P'</a>s Fleet Drive serves as a centralized fleet payments management platform for the end-to-end business needs of the fleet operators, the telematics sector, and the lenders. Our platform serves as a one-stop solution for all fleet challenges by enabling harmonized payment management across trips and cohesive access to the capital for fleet operations. Our cutting-edge <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/api-the-power-that-drives-new-age-banking-ecosystems/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">API</a>-driven technology stack ensures seamless integration of the stakeholders such as NETC, OMCs, lenders, telematics, and fleet aggregators, and provides the following benefit to the fleet industry. <h3 class="heading-node" id="p4pd974mg" style="text-align: justify">Seamless onboarding and integration&nbsp; </h3>M2P's API-driven Fleet Drive Platform fosters frictionless onboarding of vehicles and drivers. It also enables hassle-free, digital, and secure integration with stakeholders such as OMCs, NETC, fuel retailers, banks providing <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/how-to-implement-the-best-prepaid-payment-instrument-ppi-for-your-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PPI</a> wallets, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) of fleet aggregators for trip payments management.&nbsp; <h3 class="heading-node" id="e22ukte1x" style="text-align: justify">Single wallet to manage all payments </h3>The platform allows fleet owners to manage payments across FASTag, fuel, and ATM expenses throughout the trip. It also empowers the fleet owners to switch unused funds across the driver FASTag and fuel account back to the master wallet, enabling real-time capital allocation.&nbsp; <h3 class="heading-node" id="9uinlnwb5" style="text-align: justify">Real-time control and visibility&nbsp; </h3>Our Fleet Drive Platform has a centralized dashboard that provides comprehensive visibility to all on-trip operations. Fleet owners can track active vehicles, driver location, wallet balance, limit management, and capital allocation across the fleet.&nbsp; <h3 class="heading-node" id="z6ppg8kcw" style="text-align: justify">Partnership with major Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs)&nbsp; </h3>The platform facilitates stakeholders with cross-functional opportunities like fuel cashback/rewards with no surcharge on fuel payments across partner OMCs. Our API-driven technology stack supports OMCs in onboarding transporters, integrating with payment wallets, generating statements and reconciliation.&nbsp; <h3 class="heading-node" id="x498k680b" style="text-align: justify">Add value with fintech layer&nbsp; </h3>Fleet Drive Platform provides real-time reports and insights for lenders to make accurate credit decisions. With its end-to-end integration across the fleet payments ecosystem, the platform makes sure the transactions are recorded and verified for each vehicle across the entire fleet. This ensures lenders have complete visibility of the capital utilization by each fleet operator and their vehicles. They are empowered to manage risk effectively based on their Business Rule Engine (BRE) and provide credit. For Fleet Operators, adding a fintech layer to the fleet operations value chain will help in handling cash flow management based on demand and route optimizations and getting credit access from lenders.<h2 class="heading-node" id="uwglbh6eq" style="text-align: justify">360-degree Fleet Payments Management</h2>Despite the numerous advantages of the modern fleet management system, its market penetration in the fleet industry is comparatively low and lacks the finance layer to enable efficacious and secure operations. It is imperative to amalgamate the data generated by telematics &amp; fleet aggregators with the fleet payments in order to render better insights and improve the decision-making ability of the fleet operators and lenders. M2P's Fleet Drive Platform employs an API-driven technology stack to seamlessly integrate all the stakeholders to create an efficient 360-degree Fleet Payments Management. For more information on our Fleet Drive Platform, write to us at <a class="link" href="mailto:business@m2pfintech.com">business@m2pfintech.com</a>.&nbsp; <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe</a> to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights directly to your inbox.&nbsp; Follow us on <a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a> and <a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a> for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.&nbsp;

Optimize Fleet Payments through Fintech Innovations

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/11/co-lending-blog-02.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="661">Co-lending has been the buzzword in the BFSI sector since the RBI announced its new <a class="link" href="https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=11991" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Co-lending Model</a> (CLM) in November 2020. While CLM was principally designed to bridge the gap between geographical limitations and lending opportunities, plus to expand credit distribution for priority sectors, financialists reckon it might just be the answer to the country's multi-trillion-dollar liquidity issue.&nbsp; Before we jump into why co-lending can be the solution, here is a quick intro to co-lending.&nbsp; For beginners, co-lending is an arrangement between two or more lenders to jointly loan out money to their target audience. RBI's guidelines necessitate banks and NBFCs to share the risk in a ratio of 80:20 (i.e., 80% of the loan with the bank and 20% with the non-banks). So, banks will lend to the NBFCs, and the NBFCs will lend to the priority sectors. And fintechs will serve as the cardinal technology layer for banks and NBFCs to achieve their co-lending objectives.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/11/co-lending-blog-04-1.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="502"><h2 class="heading-node" id="2w795jbxr" style="text-align: justify">Co-lending backstory</h2>Although co-lending has been in the Indian market since 2012, it’s the disruption of BFSI by fintechs and new-age NBFCs between 2018 and 2022 that turned co-lending into a well-heeled business. Today, every leading business wants a piece of this pie.&nbsp; MSMEs play a pivotal role in India's socioeconomic development. According to the <a class="link" href="https://www.ibef.org/industry/msme/infographic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ministry of MSME</a>, India is home to about 7.9 million MSMEs and account for about 29% of the GDP. However, with the pandemic curbing the global market and slowing down domestic trade, the sector was one of the most impacted by the capital crunch, high-risk perception by banks, and all-time high inflation rates. Subsequently, over 65% of MSMEs were temporarily shut down for three or more months in FY21, and more than half of the companies witnessed a decline of about 25% in revenues. These circumstances made it clear that the MSMEs needed a helping hand in surviving the impact. What's more?&nbsp; A sizeable chunk of India's population falls outside the purview of formal financial systems. This population comprises self-employed small-scale entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, farmers, and other small borrowers. According to recent reports, the country has a 365 million underbanked/underserved population, creating an 8 lakh crore market for small-ticket loans. Wherefore, the government was obliged to set up a robust economic model to reach and cater to the monetary needs of this population, who serve as the backbone of the country's economy.&nbsp; In the wake of this condition, the RBI re-christened its co-origination framework as the Co-lending Model in 2020, with the prime objective of enabling frictionless collaboration of banks and NBFCs to increase the flow of credit in the MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises), EWS (Economically Weaker Sections), LIG (Low-Income Group), and MIG (Middle-Income Group) categories, where banks take a backseat in lending owing to higher operating costs and credit risks.<h2 class="heading-node" id="kuxw2jr3b" style="text-align: justify">Why Co-lending?</h2>The priority sector has embraced economic hardships due to the pandemic and its repercussions. Industry experts believe the renewed co-lending model has great potential to significantly transform the sector. For one, banks can leverage the market outreach, loan origination, and servicing acumen of NBFCs, and NBFCs can bank on improved liquidity and profitability. In addition, per RBI's circular, NBFCs are the single point of interface for customers. They are responsible for loan origination, fund routing, servicing, and collection. Given their extensive reach at the grassroots level, better last mile connectivity, and customer relationship, NBFCs have established themselves as being more effective than banks in handling loan recovery/collection. Therefore, this approach is expected to augment the timely servicing of debt by the borrowers.Under the renewed co-lending model, the banks' finances and NBFCs' (customer reach and) capabilities meld with fintechs' technology. If exercised in the true spirit, RBI can score a hat-trick. 1. Render tailor-made and affordable financial solutions at the grassroots level 2. Catalyze the upraise of the priority sector from its economic hardships 3. Drive financial inclusion and accelerate the overall economic development of the country Learn more about the features of co-lending and why it is the future <a class="link" href="https://finflux.co/blog/co-lending-is-the-future-heres-why/">here</a>.<h2 class="heading-node" id="m5m618l46" style="text-align: justify">Advantages of Co-lending</h2>The fundamental goal of the co-lending model is to act as a seamless medium for large banks to extend their services to borrowers and MSMEs in the remotest regions, which are otherwise inaccessible. Further, the co-lending model opens up unique liquidity windows for market players, boosting their confidence, and enabling sustainable growth. For customers, co-lending helps build their portfolio. Under the co-lending guidelines, FIs can loan to many potential businesses that banks reject due to the absence of credit history. This facilitates them to rebuild a good credit history and qualify for other loans. Besides, NBFCs increase financial literacy among their underserved/unserved customers by educating them about co-lending and its terms and conditions.<h2 class="heading-node" id="5s7psfhby" style="text-align: justify">What's in it for Lenders?</h2>Extended reach&nbsp; NBFCs have a broader customer portfolio. They are capable of reaching out to potential customers in rural/remote areas who are underserved in banking and digitalization. NBFCs usually collaborate with fintechs to set up digital platforms that help them cater to the needs of borrowers across multiple geographies. Banks can take advantage of this to widen their customer base and provide the economically weaker strata with the funds they require. NBFCs have the advantage of having increased access to funds. Operational efficiency The digitalization and robust technology layer have led to superior quality services. As the entire co-lending process, from application to disbursal, is fully automated, it reduces the human effort and time consumed in processing a loan. This, in turn, strikingly lowers turnaround time for all processes. The digital approach has helped banks expand their scope into new segments while reducing the cost of capital for NBFCs. This implies low customer acquisition cost, more loan applications, lesser underwriting costs, disbursing more loans, and gaining more market share. Hence, the boost in operational efficiency. Shared risk&nbsp; CLM gives banks the opportunity and flexibility to partner with one or more lenders. According to the model, the risk is divided between the entities in the agreement. In this setting, banks benefit from an added sense of security and minimize the effects of loss. On the other hand, the primary challenge of NBFCs in India is the lack of established mechanisms to reduce the risk of defaults. Under the co-lending partnership, the losses on the loans/bad debts are shared between the partner banks and NBFCs. Thereby incurring a lesser loss. Improved credibility New-age companies looking to enter the lending business can build credibility for their brand through partnerships with major banks. Similarly, banks can tie up with established NBFCs to instill brand awareness. Want to implement a seamless automated lending process tool? Look no further. M2P’s core lending suite is what you need. Our core lending system takes care of the entire lending lifecycle without requiring any manual intervention.<h2 class="heading-node" id="dfkrvinwm" style="text-align: justify">How will NBFCs benefit from M2P’s Core Lending Suite?</h2>We are the only player in the industry to have a comprehensive product suite required for lending under one roof. Our core lending suite helps manage the entire loan lifecycle, including <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/loan-origination-system/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">loan origination</a>, <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/loan-management-system/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">loan management</a>, financial accounting, marketplace integration, app-based lending, <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/steps-in-credit-underwriting-why-using-an-alternative-source-of-data-and-behavior-metrics-will-be-of-help/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alternative data-based credit scoring</a>, dashboards, reporting, and analytics. <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">M2P’s lending program</a> is composable and built on Open API infrastructure, enabling you to develop customized programs and applications. We help you disburse credit in any form– cards, line, check-out EMI, embedded form, OD form, regular EMI, and asset-based​. In addition, our lending program has a robust LOS that allows you to configure custom workflows and change parameters on-the-fly without altering the code. With optimized TCO at all stages, constantly upgraded (quarterly) system, and bank-grade security, be market ready with our core-lending suite in a trice. To get down to the brass tacks of our system or for a demo, write to us at <a class="link" href="mailto:business@m2pfintech.com">business@m2pfintech.com</a> We will deep dive into how co-lending programs can be implemented using the Finflux platform, in the upcoming blog. Watch out this space for more insights.<a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe</a> to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights directly to your inbox.  Follow us on <a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a> and <a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a> for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you. &nbsp;

Focus: Rise of Co-Lending Model

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/11/Super-Apps-in-Banking-blog_Word-press.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="479">Imagine an app that allows you to access your bank accounts, make payments, take out loans, handle your insurance policies, monitor your investment dashboard, and more—all in one!Wouldn't that be the epitome of convenience? Such nifty apps are no longer a fiction.&nbsp;Embrace yourself when we say these SUPER APPS are on their way to radically disrupt the way we know accessibility in digital banking.&nbsp;Before diving deep into Super apps in consumer banking, let us quickly recap what a Super app is.<h2 class="heading-node" id="ny0ld8tzi" style="text-align: justify">What are Super apps?</h2>A Super app is a single portal that powers a wide range of functions and services shaped around users' daily lifestyle needs. Technically, a super app is a collection of multiple niche applications that establish an ecosystem of fully-integrated third-party services aided by a payment system. This creates a mini operating system that acts like a digital assistant, working at the user's convenience as one can stay in the app to carry out a multitude of tasks.Although the concept has been creating massive buzz recently, it isn't new. Businesses like TenCent, Alipay, Grab, Paytm, and Gojek have been the frontrunners for years. Let us give you a quick overview of how some of these companies support an all-inclusive platform.TenCent is a Chinese company that started as a simple messaging platform (named WeChat). Once they built their billion-plus customer base, they slowly set up a network of services, including virtual wallets, payments, hotel reservations, taxi rides, medical consultations, games, and much more.An example that is closer to home is Paytm. In 2010, Paytm was launched as a payment application. Today, it offers a comprehensive set of services, including online shopping, credit cards, loans, repayments, microloans, BNPL, insurance, ticketing services, retail brokerage products, online games, and more on its platform. Given the platforms' extensive acceptance, several fintechs are now trying to recreate a similar model customized to their customer bases.<h2 class="heading-node" id="zehxh25s4" style="text-align: justify">What makes them Super?</h2>What marks off a Super app from a regular app is the element of multifunctionality, comprehensiveness, and data privacy. Further, it best suits businesses with extensive data and a large customer base. In addition, rendering a gamut of services and products through one application gives customers a sense of belonging, ownership, and safety, which significantly enhances the customer experience.Here are some of the key factors that contributed to the popularity and success of Super apps.One-click relevance: Provides customers with personalized overviews and product offers. Rolling everything customers need to transact through daily life into a Super app is one way to core relevance and success.&nbsp;Real-time communications: Chatbot interactions that offer real-time assistance, including upselling, fraud prevention, nudges, and recommendations.&nbsp;Connectivity: Anything from financial, business, lifestyle, and health to government can be accessed through one app.<h2 class="heading-node" id="n493lw6t3" style="text-align: justify">Super apps in Consumer Banking</h2>Super apps in the banking sector are a rare feat. Conversely, fintechs quickly recognized the potential of enabling ultra-personalization and budget automation using AI-powered financial assistants. They are keen to build Super apps that can leverage aggregators with established digital marketplaces to connect users with an existing ecosystem for digital banking and financial services.Ideally, a financial Super app is a multi-function digital banking and <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/the-rise-of-digital-payments/" target="">payments</a> solution featuring financial services that are beyond payments. The app must enable consumers to perform most of their daily activities digitally, like bill and fee payments, purchases, fund transfers, bookings, tickets, subscriptions, investment management, and insurance purchases and management. Interestingly, the list can keep adding as many functionalities as possible to improve customer engagement and satisfaction.According to recent studies, about 50% of consumers use mobile application or website at least once a week to interact with their bank. This stands as a testimony that today's consumers and businesses expect their banks to be a tap away and swiftly adapt to their digital needs. Experts believe, with embedded finance and open banking, any provider can become a super app that serves as a gateway that delivers the ever-growing demand for convenience in the banking process — rather than just a series of disconnected/loose-ended financial services.When it comes to consumer banking, it's all about comprehensive experience in a Super app environment. And it takes more than just tech. It requires full partner-network management, a clear understanding of compliance, rights, responsibilities, liabilities, commitment to developing a broad-ranging ecosystem, and more. For instance, a <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/neo-banking-101-all-you-need-to-know/">Neobank</a> can provide an 'N' number of financial products and services by integrating with regulated FI at the back end and tech-driven fintech at the front end.Essentials of Financial Super apps Intuitive user experience and interconnectedness are the cornerstones of a financial Super app. These will allow users to easily access all available features. Here are some of the key elements that a financial Super app must include:<ul class="list-node" id="52ez20cgw"><li>Shared wallet&nbsp;</li><li>Savings accounts&nbsp;</li><li>Budgeting tools&nbsp;</li><li>Bill reminders</li><li>Auto bill payments&nbsp;</li><li>Managing subscriptions&nbsp;</li><li>Investment options&nbsp;</li><li>QR code payments and rewards</li></ul><h2 class="heading-node" id="sw6d1s7fn" style="text-align: justify">How Open Banking powers Super apps?</h2>Super apps use financial data from multiple sources to create financial products and services to meet customers' needs.But how do they get to know what their users need?What provides them with the information they need to create an omni-channel experience?Enter Open Banking.Open banking is the foundation of interoperability in the banking sector. For novices, Open Banking system uses <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/api-the-power-that-drives-new-age-banking-ecosystems/">APIs</a> to provide third-party financial service providers access to consumer banking, transactions, and other financial data from banks and NBFCs. To understand the working of Open Banking, read <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/open-banking-a-primer-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.The Open Banking system presents the platform with a spectrum of opportunities to tailor financial services to cater to each user's requirements. It employs advanced technologies like AI, ML, and Data Analytics to maximize personalization and build customer-relevant products by leveraging customers' data. Using advanced technology to analyze data and develop customer-centric products/services fosters data-sharing culture and data-driven decision-making across the ecosystem.With the help of Open Banking, Super apps can empower customers to check their account balances, make payments, track recent transactions, and perform other traditional banking operations from the app's digital wallet. This strikingly reduces the need to access a bank's app. In addition, as Open Banking expands into open finance and open data, Super apps can access and connect with a wide range of partners to augment go-to-market speed for new products and broader their customer base.<h2 class="heading-node" id="9eqqd85qv" style="text-align: justify">API Inference</h2>API infrastructure is the essence of embedded finance and open banking. A good API provider wraps intricacies like disputed payments and connecting to multiple suppliers inside the API system. This allows intended apps to work together in several ways and develop a comprehensive ecosystem. In addition, APIs empower Super apps to handle extensive, inter-connected data through multiple levels without disturbing the user journey. Fintechs leverage APIs to seamlessly incorporate functionalities into cloud-native apps. They employ full-fledged, mobile-first, customizable API stack to simplify consumer banking and enable end-to-end customer-centric retail offerings.Want to understand the nuts and bolts of Super apps? Write to us at <a class="link" href="mailto:business@m2pfintech.com">business@m2pfintech.com</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;To boot, what would an ideal Super app be for you? Let us know in the comments below.&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a> to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights directly to your inbox.&nbsp;Follow us on <a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a> and <a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a> for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.

Super Apps in Consumer Banking - What Role does Open Banking Play?

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/10/e-KYC-2.0-in-Egypt-blog_1-02.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="236">The last 6 years have been the fintech era for Egypt. Its rather traditional financial system has been steadily progressing toward digitalization. Recent reports affirm that the country is turning into the entrepreneurial hotspot for burgeoning fintech startups in North Africa, and its financial services sector is expected to grow at 12% yearly until 2025. The growth can be attributed to the thriving fintech adoption in North Africa, the boost in internet usage in Egypt, and most importantly, the government's commitment to attaining its Vision 2030.<h2 class="heading-node" id="wpgeh9ggx">Financial Digitalization&nbsp;</h2> In light of the Vision, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) designed and developed numerous policies with the prime objective of improving the <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/fintech-a-catalyst-for-financial-inclusion/">financial inclusion</a> of the country as well as transforming the nation into the regional hub for fintech innovations. One such approach is digitalization in the financial services industry. Digitalization is one of the three strategic pillars of Egypt's Vision 2030, which aligns with the country's allegiance to the <a class="link" href="https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals">United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).</a> The Vision's framework holistically fosters the transformation of Egypt into a digital or cash-free economy. With over 95 million young, unbanked/underbanked population, Egypt exhibits an extended appetite for digitalization, inclusion, and fintech innovations.According to <a class="link" href="https://www.mastercard.com/news/eemea/en/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases/en/2022/august/mastercard-new-payment-index-2022-consumers-in-egypt-embrace-digital-payments/">Mastercard's New Payment Index 2022 report</a>, 61% of Egyptian banking customers feel safe using mobile apps to send money to people or make payments to both online and offline merchants. In addition, 42% (i.e., four in ten) are keen to share their financial data to access payment tools/mobile applications that help them manage their finances.In 2021, Egypt's digital banking system witnessed an enormous upswing in mobile banking transactions. While the number of digital banking transactions increased by 107%, the value climbed by 159%. The number of internet banking users increased by 30% (y-o-y), and the value of transactions through digital channels increased by 60%. Further, the number of transactions over mobile wallets surged 108% reaching 212 million transactions, and e-commerce grew by 34% registering 60.3 million transactions. The value of electronic purchases using bank cards increased by 40% and climbed to EGP 23 billion from EGP 14 billion in the fiscal year 2019/2020. Overall, the banking system processed electronic transactions worth EGP 2.8 trillion during the fiscal year (FY) 2020/2021.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/10/e-KYC-2.0-in-Egypt-blog_1-.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="236"> Mobile wallets covered a substantial fraction in the digitalization leap. Mobile wallet transactions rose to 268 billion EGP in 2021 from 88 billion EGP in 2020, attaining a 200 % increase. The number of banks providing electronic wallet services grew to 23, increasing the number of electronic wallets from 9 million in 2020 to 26 million in 2021. On the other hand, e-commerce transactions increased from 16 billion EGP to 30 billion EGP.Furthermore, the volume of government receipts through banking channels has reached more than 662 billion EGP. The volume of annual electronic transactions through electronic points of sale has witnessed a great leap from 110 billion EGP to 170 billion EGP. Such a mammoth uptick in digital adaption significantly scaled the financial ecosystem, calling for streamlined and robust Know Your Customer (<a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/know-your-customer-kyc-the-need-for-authentication/">KYC</a>) procedures that are crucial to detect risk factors and avert financial crimes such as identity theft, <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/how-to-combat-money-laundering-2/">money laundering</a>, and terrorist financing.<h2 class="heading-node" id="weyytqtfu">Current KYC regime</h2> Egypt's KYC regime has the following tiers: Full KYC and Simplified KYC. To process a full KYC, FIs require<ul class="list-node" id="j6d4yly7a"><li>National ID&nbsp;</li><li>Customer ID number&nbsp;</li><li>Date of birth</li><li>Gender&nbsp;</li><li>Nationality&nbsp;</li><li>Religion&nbsp;</li><li>Legal form&nbsp;</li><li>Full address</li><li>Mobile and/or Telephone number</li></ul>When simplified KYC was first set up, it required FIs to validate only the National ID. However, when CBE released the second framework for its simplified KYC in 2016, it housed pioneering programs demanding minimum requirements for limited mobile money accounts as an alternative to the standard bank accounts with full KYC requirements. In both cases, bank personnel or a CBE licensed service provider conducts Customer Due Diligence (CDD) at customer premises and completes the KYC procedures. To perform <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/crack-the-kyc-jigsaw-ease-onboarding-compliance/">KYC</a>, companies must obtain and verify customers' data, including name, address, and date of birth, using government-issued identification cards, passports, utility bills, and mobile bills. Additionally, the customer's credibility is also validated by verifying their job license and sports club membership/subscription (if any). If a person is found to be a Political Exposed Person (PEP), financial institutions must take extra steps to check out that person.<h2 class="heading-node" id="c8l4ipur3">Rise of e-KYC</h2> The government and the Central Bank of Egypt have been proactive and quick to recognize the importance of a digitized KYC system in enabling frictionless financial digitalization. Subsequently, the underpinning was laid in 2019 when the <a class="link" href="https://fintech.cbe.org.eg/home/sandboxCohorts?en">CBE's Regulatory Sandbox</a> rolled out the red carpet for its first cohort in "e-KYC."The regulatory sandbox allows fintechs to trial their new products, services, technologies, and business models. The sandbox approach encourages innovative fintech products and services, reduces time to market, and cuts the cost involved in developing the products and services. It also enables CBE to understand disruptive fintech products and services before deciding to regulate them and collect evidence that can be used to draft practical guidelines and robust regulations. After a successful testing phase, the CBE is ramping up to launch a pilot of the electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) service to enable citizens to access financial services online without the need to walk into a brick-and-mortar bank. Here's a quick overview of how the modern e-KYC compares to the current KYC regime.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/10/e-KYC-2.0-in-Egypt-blog_4.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="236"><h2 class="heading-node" id="z3b0iamw8">Unlocking the potential of e-KYC</h2> Egypt is a disruption-ready market. Although over 75 million actively use the internet, as of April 2022, about 2/3 rd of the population is underbanked, and a significant portion is still unbanked. Further, in accordance with the Egyptian Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Combating Unit (EMLCU), the CBE issued guidelines to all banks. It entails banks to draft new simplified procedures to open bank accounts for the self-employed and owners of micro-sized projects to encourage greater inclusion. Currently, 32 banks offer internet banking facilities, and 28 have obtained a license to render mobile-based banking services to their customers. In this unique landscape, leveraging e-KYC to streamline onboarding will boost financial reliability, stability, and growth. It will also augment market penetration and improve financial inclusion in the country. With the help of e-KYC, consumers will be able to verify themselves online in minimal steps, including document verification, data extraction, and face verification. They can see their verification status once these steps are completed. This would make the digital onboarding process simpler and secure, thereby helping customers trust financial entities more and making digital transactions easier and more accessible. On the other hand, it would assist FIs in extending services to a larger community of Egyptians living and working in the country and the Egyptian diaspora living abroad. In addition, e-KYC would help to lower risk and dramatically expand credit products like consumer lending as the process would speed up loan approvals. Even though the validation through e-KYC is still nascent, financial experts believe these approvals are likely to be high-value loans for houses and cars.<h2 class="heading-node" id="3qe9qztw4">Benefits of e-KYC</h2> In such a cyberized environment, e-KYC procedures can immensely benefit both financial institutions and customers. Here are some of them: Simple, Instantaneous, Accessible&nbsp;&nbsp;Traditionally, paper-based KYC is a time-consuming process. It can take days or, in some cases, weeks to complete the verification process. On the other hand, e-KYC is a fully automated or digital process that almost eliminates manual intervention. This makes it convenient for individuals and businesses to fill out forms without needing to visit a physical branch or office. Further, as the KYC data is transferred in real-time, it takes just a few minutes to verify and issue when an individual is opting for a banking service or product. Since it can be performed 24/7, 365 days, it increases scalability and makes it more accessible to consumers. Boosts customer acquisition&nbsp;According to a recent report, most Egyptians prefer getting a loan from their friends and family instead of approaching a FI, owing to the extensive time and effort involved in the KYC procedure. E-KYC is one of the optimal solutions to overcome this limitation. The digitized system makes the onboarding process simple and quick and is highly accurate compared to the KYC procedure. As it drastically reduces the waiting time to complete the verification, e-KYC enhances the customer experience from the very first interaction with the bank. Therefore, it serves as a critical factor in attracting new customers and maintaining loyal customer engagement.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/10/e-KYC-2.0-in-Egypt-blog_1-05.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="236">Mitigates fraud&nbsp;In Egypt, digitalization in the banking sector is in progress. Consequently, banks and non-banking financial companies have to work with the remnants of old legacy systems. However, with steadily growing online transactions, FIs ought to preemptively identify and address systematic digital fraud. The e-KYC system includes technologies such as OCR, facial recognition, liveness detection, and fraud detection to monitor accounts continuously for prohibited transactions or activities. This helps banks detect and eliminate falsified onboarding.&nbsp; Improves operational efficiency&nbsp;By integrating e-KYC, banks can augment profits, enhance regulatory compliance, and transmute customer experience. As it requires zero to minimal manual intervention, it eliminates the need to hire/train agents for KYC procedures. This helps FIs to devote their personnel to other core business functions. Additionally, e-KYC promotes a cloud-based online system to store customer information, thereby replacing the need for paper and document management. Such practice reduces the cost associated with regular KYC compliance. Safe and Secure&nbsp;First off, e-KYC is a consent-based system that enables an individual to share data only upon his or her own accord and consent. Secondly, it entails fewer human beings reviewing sensitive data. Third, the customer's account details, transaction data, and other financial information are secure as it is an online process. This protects the individual's right to privacy and minimizes identity theft, fraud, money laundering, loan scams, etc.<h2 class="heading-node" id="7fd6wjrq0">M2P - a leader in KYC services</h2>M2P's e-KYC suite facilitates businesses to get customer KYC from anywhere in the nation while adhering to all regulatory requirements. It enables financial institutions to control the user data necessary to be captured from the customer, which is collected through the user journeys built into the partner/bank's digital assets. The customer's KYC is performed using the bank's/authorized entity's KYC <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/api-the-power-that-drives-new-age-banking-ecosystems/">APIs</a>, and the outcome of the activity is captured by M2P.&nbsp; Our e-KYC Gateway facilitates seamless customer onboarding for corporates &amp; to better the service delivery by governments. Further, <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/kyc-suite.php">M2P</a> ensures robust integration between the partner's/bank's digital assets and issuing bank's <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/future-of-core-banking-systems/">core banking</a> solution.Our services do not stop with e-KYC. We are incumbents in rendering extensive e-KYB to lending businesses. Our Bank Statement Analyzer is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning that processes statement data in real-time. The analyzer runs deep analytics to generate accurate reports that help financial institutions and lending businesses make quick credit assessments and decisions. We are launching soon in Egypt. If you are interested in partnering with us, write to us at <a class="link" href="mailto:business@m2pfintech.com">business@m2pfintech.com.</a> <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights, directly to your inbox.Follow us on&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a>&nbsp;for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.

e-KYC 2.0 in Egypt - Enabling the Next Generation Fintech Adoption

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/10/Star-of-the-month_May-Star-of-Month-Medium-Bolg.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="358">It’s Star of the Month time again. The time we take to recognize outstanding people at M2P. This October, we shine the spotlight on the charming and illustrious Akshatha, our Engineering Lead. Akshatha is an eternal optimist who enjoys pushing limits and resolving challenges. Be it breaking complex puzzles or engineering fintech products. She never misses an opportunity to shine. We wondered what makes Akshatha shine the way she does. We got into a candid chat with her to get to know her secret to an efficient and productive workday, along with her interests and her wonderful journey as an M2Peer. Here you go!<h2 class="heading-node" id="g2n8sbwru" style="text-align: justify">How do you usually start your workday?</h2>I start my day on a joyful, positive note. I begin my work by making a to-do list for the day. Then, I organize my work schedule to carry out my responsibilities with greater efficiency. Finding challenging things to work on is my passion. Solving issues that come my way and helping fellow teammates with their tasks makes my day.<h2 class="heading-node" id="qjwthdj8e" style="text-align: justify">What are your main responsibilities as Engineering Lead?</h2>I lead the Micro Finance product at Finflux. My responsibility lies in understanding client requirements, coordinating product design, and planning product development. Managing the complete product lifecycle from requirement gathering to go-live falls under my purview. I also develop certain product features to be in touch with core technical concepts. The mantra that helps me add value to whatever I do is “Build the product right and build the right product”.<h2 class="heading-node" id="w8nbftwew" style="text-align: justify">How have you grown through the years as an M2Peer?</h2>I joined Finflux as an intern almost 3 years back during college campus placements with no experience in the software domain. From there, I started my internship in the final year and after graduation, I continued as a full-time employee. Even though I started out at Finflux, looking back as an M2Peer, I am proud of myself for how far I have grown.&nbsp; My responsibilities have helped me mature not just as a tech person but also as a leader. The nurturing nature of the leadership team helped me explore my strength in different fields of the product and not restrict myself to just being a software developer. The technical exposure, challenges, and guidance from my mentors helped me grow in my professional life. I strongly believe that when we put in our hard work &amp; efforts at something, we will surely see the growth intended. I look forward to a long and fruitful journey as an M2Peer.<h2 class="heading-node" id="ve1dfauyz" style="text-align: justify">Is there a quote/saying that motivates you?</h2>Yes, there is one. Steve Jobs's quote always inspires me, ‘You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.’ I connect myself to the saying because everything I work on might not have an immediate impact. But I trust the process and take up every opportunity that comes on my way.<h2 class="heading-node" id="dtb3sxie3" style="text-align: justify">Have you ever played a practical joke in your school/college days?</h2> I have not played any practical jokes during my school/college times.<h2 class="heading-node" id="ps8kbprqk" style="text-align: justify">What’s that one thing your colleagues don’t know about you?</h2>Well, nobody knows that I was an emcee and writer during my college days. I hosted several events and was an editor of my monthly college magazine. I love anchoring events and I'm very fond of reading and writing articles.<h2 class="heading-node" id="q7fwoznm9" style="text-align: justify">What inspires you the most about your workplace?</h2>It's the people. M2P is a space where you can share your thoughts and suggestions in an open-minded way with everyone, right from founders to your peers. There are no barriers to communicating new ideas and this motivates me a lot. I also get complete freedom to take individual decisions and own them. This ability inspires me to keep improving by analyzing the outcomes of every decision I take.<h2 class="heading-node" id="wkxq6k3s1" style="text-align: justify">What’s your idea of a perfect day?</h2>A perfect day for me is executing my tasks as planned and accommodating ad-hoc tasks in the best way possible. If I finish my work on time and get quality time with my friends and family, I would call it a perfect day.<h2 class="heading-node" id="0b5jkfrux" style="text-align: justify">What was your career path before and how it has changed?</h2>I started this amazing journey as an intern to become what I am today. M2P is a place with lots of positive vibes that motivate one to keep improving.&nbsp; When we are surrounded by positive people and goal-oriented mindsets, accomplishing great things and scaling new heights becomes possible. My seniors in Finflux were very supportive and always guided me to sharpen my leadership skills. Here I'd like to shower a special mention to Dhiru, because of the way he comes up with innovative solutions for any issue. This inspires me to think in a unique way, make things possible and develop the 'never to give up' attitude. Working on various segments like gold loans, microfinance, and other fintech products gave me a lot of exposure to understanding how every product works.&nbsp;I started to inculcate this knowledge into anything I design based on the target customers. The maturity of understanding how each customer would require the feature or product to work is a big learning I acquired. Now I step into the 4th year with M2P. It's amazing! It's indeed an incredible step-by-step journey to reach where I am today. I look forward to greater experiences and learning.<h2 class="heading-node" id="sjootmbfo" style="text-align: justify">What are your hobbies/ interests?</h2>Basically, I am a classical singer and I never miss indulging myself in extracurricular activities. As an Abacus graduate, solving puzzles is my passion. Though traveling is my hidden interest, I haven't gotten the opportunity to explore that area. In future, I hope I get to travel a lot more.<h2 class="heading-node" id="bb7rs11t9" style="text-align: justify">Anything else you want to share with your peers?</h2>It has been 3 wonderful years at Finflux. I would like to thank all my peers for this amazing and wonderful opportunity. Special mention to Nayan Ambali who always keeps motivating me to take my own decisions and retrospect on the results. I believe that with the combined effort and efficient communication between teams we have achieved a lot already and there is so much more to achieve. Since we are always motivated, we are growing tremendously and nothing is out of our reach.&nbsp;I can grab every opportunity out there and make it fruitful for us. M2P has enabled me to learn, explore and grow in a better way. Looking forward to a lot more learning opportunities from each and everyone in the future. Keep inspiring, team M2P!😊 <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights, directly to your inbox. Follow us on&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a>&nbsp;for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.