With emerging technologies changing the way we bank, cyber security has emerged as a key area of concern. Prof D Janakiram, director of Hyderabad-based Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) this year, speaks to Swati Rathor about the threats facing our banking systems and the work IDRBT is doing to beef up their security.
Banks have to be ahead of the hacker so, we are trying to create a change in the mindset of people managing these entities. For instance, many banks are innovating on AI/ML products by getting data from social media, where it is easy to manipulate data that leads to models being fed with wrong data. Hence, the whole system can be compromised. So, data integrity as well as security becomes a very critical part of the AI/ML system and that is an active research we are pursuing. The second thing we are trying to look at is how to reduce the impact of cyberattacks. For instance, if the digital transactions are on mobile platforms, one can use geo-fencing to reduce the chances of such attacks. Apart from this, cyber drills that we conduct regularly help banks spot vulnerabilities in their systems. We also have a threat intelligence platform that gathers information across banks and multiple sources and shares it with banks.
Which technologies will impact the financial inclusion mandate in future?
Technologies like 5G are likely to provide many opportunities as they will boost the number of internet users. When you add somebody to the financial system, that person would expect more facilities such as access to credit. Now, if you want to make credit accessible, one of the key things is the profile of the person, which means we collect data. Here the usage of the AI/ML models to be able to provide both, risk models as well as prediction models, will become necessary.
What new research areas is IDRBT focusing on?
We are focusing on next-generation digital financial infrastructure. The pandemic has made it imperative that we should have a next-generation video KYC platform. Currently there are many pain points for customers as every bank and financial services entity is trying to do its own video KYC. So, we are looking at a new platform, where, if the customer does a video KYC once, it will be available for other entities to verify. We would like to make this platform a part of the India Stack so that there is a quality enhancement in terms of the digital identity platforms.
But what about new age skills in the banking sector?
IDRBT is focusing on creating a cyber security skilled workforce because it is an extremely critical need. Besides, in the financial sector, skills pertaining to AI/ML and Cloud are also very important and we are working on that along with skilling on the 5G front.
If you have a demat and/or trading account, then do ensure that all your KYC details including income range, mobile number, email ID etc. are up-to-date/provided in the account. If these details are not updated in your accounts by July 31 (Saturday), then your demat and trading account will be deactivated. Many stock broking firms/Depository participants have been emailing letters to their clients i.e. demat/trading account holders, to complete/update their KYC details before the expiry of the deadline to avoid deactivation of their demat/trading accounts.
As per circulars issued by the depositories, i.e., Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) dated April 5, 2021 and National Securities Depository Limited (NDSL) dated April 7, 2021, certain KYC attributes must be updated mandatorily before July 31, 2021. These include: a)Name b)Address c)PAN d)Valid mobile number e)Valid email ID f)Income range
If these details are not updated, then your demat account will be deactivated by the depository and will not be activated till you update these details. Prakash Gagdani, CEO, 5Paisa.com says, “If all the KYC attributes are not updated, especially the verification of mobile number and email ID, the demat account shall remain under ‘Pending for Activation’. It means that demat accounts will not be activated by depositories till all the KYC attributes are updated. In case of updation of mobile number and email ID, these will be verified before the demat account is activated.”
He adds, “If demat account cannot be activated, there would be hindrance in activating of trading account as well. Even if the client buys shares, the shares cannot be transferred to his demat account till the time KYC attributes are updated and verified.”
As per emails sent by the Stockholding Corporation to their clients if KYC details with regards to PAN is to be updated, then one should ensure that their PAN is linked with Aadhaar in the income tax database. Similar emails have been sent to their clients by ICICI Bank Demat Services.
With regards to the income range, account holders have been asked to choose and specify as to which income range their income falls in from a list given in the email. The list of income ranges from which account holders have to choose, as per the email, are:
For individuals (annual): a)Below Rs 1 lakh b)Rs 1 lakh – Rs 5 lakh c)Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh d)Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh e)More than Rs 25 lakh
For non-individuals (annual): a)Rs 20 lakh b)Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh c)Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore d)More than Rs 1 crore
To launch Europe‘s largest and award winning cryptocurrency trading platform in India, Coinsbit India, had announced India’s biggest ever airdrop on 9th April 2021. The airdrop has been a massive success with 665,550 KYC verified users receiving CIN worth $200 each in the first round. The campaign is still live with the second and third round starting on 20th June and 10th July respectively. Coinsbit India to launch INR Trading Pairs Soon.
Along with the airdrop, Coinsbit India has also launched its own 5-level referral program along with staking opportunities. Staking cryptocurrency is one of the most appreciated ways to invest in the new age. It is a less resource-intensive alternative to mining which involves holding funds in a wallet to support the security and operations of a blockchain network. So basically, staking is the act of locking cryptocurrencies to receive rewards. Coinsbit India Staking lets you earn rewards in a very simple way – all you have to do is hold and ‘stake’ coins on the exchange to enjoy 3% monthly rewards.
In order to avoid token price crash upon CIN token listing, a vesting schedule will be implemented and there will be a gradual monthly release in the CIN tokens earned from airdrop and referrals. This will help in preserving the token value and prevent price drop. Benefits from holding CIN tokens will start as soon as the airdrop ends on 31st July. Users will have an opportunity to buy CIN tokens and start earning on staking pools at a 3% monthly rate. Holders can avail a 25% discount on trading fees by paying in CIN. Along with interest incentive and discount purchases, in future, users will also be able access the Coinsbit Vault, Marketplace and Blockchain Games, apart from other benefits.
Staking is an excellent way to earn rewards when the market is volatile or showing ‘bear-ish’ sentiment or just to earn extra rewards and do more with cryptocurrencies. Crypto coins staking has several advantages that have helped it gain popularity. Apart from being a passive income for users, it doesn’t require much specialized skills. A small investment by purchasing cryptocurrency is enough to get you started, hence making the threshold for entering quite low.
What’s next for Coinsbit India?
According to Chainalysis, investments in crypto grew from about $200 million to nearly $40 billion in India alone, in just one year. With the constantly growing crypto market in India, Coinsbit India has massive plans for expansions. They will soon go live with crypto trading while engaging more blockchain developers for both building CIN Smart Chain Ecosystem and to develop NFT, DEXs and DeFi apps. CEO of Coinsbit India, Ravneet Kaur, talked about revolutionizing the Indian cryptocurrency and blockchain space. She said, “We believe that there can be a new economy based on decentralization and trust. If anything, these uncertain times have taught us, it is that we need to be prepared to confront them. To avoid what is happening in Lebanon right now, Africa and Latin American Economies. we need to explore alternative methods of investment. Cryptocurrency can be a hedge against such interferences where people have no control and their currency suddenly devalues. Recently, El Salvador legalized bitcoin to attract investments and crypto talent while boosting their economy. India needs to keep up with the constantly changing times and needs cryptocurrency to revitalize its economy.”
Akshit Khanna, CMO Coinsbit India, gave Business Wire India a little sneak peek into what’s next. “Cryptocurrency is still a relatively new concept for the masses which has shown great potential. We want to help educate people and build an informed crypto community in India. Very soon, we will be running campaigns to specifically explain buying and the storage process of cryptos and much more at Coinsbit Academy.
Just as they were breathing easy with the Reserve Bank of India clarifying that banks can do due diligence of crypto clients, Indian crypto exchanges have been hit by another hurdle.
With the RBI reiterating that it does not favour cryptocurrencies, major payment gateways have pulled out hitting transactions.
Customer complaints have inundated all India’s key exchanges as the pullout by major payment gateways, including Razorpay, PayU and BillDesk has hit transactions, according to social media and users.
The options
Options being resorted to including tying up with smaller payment gateways, building their own payment processors, holding back on immediate settlements or offering only peer-to-peer transactions.
At least two exchanges have tied up with smaller payment processing firm, Airpay, as its larger peers have cut ties.
Some crypto exchanges, such as WazirX, are forced to stick only to peer-to-peer transactions on certain days, while others, such as Vauld, allow bank transfers with manual settlement as they hunt for a payment processor, backing up settlements.
Smaller payment gateways have not proved very successful in executing high volumes of transactions, leading to failures that have resulted in a flood of user complaints.
Others, such as Bitbns, have built their own basic payment processor, allowing some essential transactions since the systems do not require prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank.
A grey area
Despite the boom, cryptocurrencies are in a grey area in India, with the Reserve Bank hostile towards it and the government unsure about its prospects.
There is no legislation or regulatory code yet to govern the crypto ecosystem, leading to confusion among customers, businesses and financial institutions providing banking services.
In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India barred financial institutions from supporting crypto transactions, which the Supreme Court overturned in 2020. The government has circulated a draft bill outlawing all cryptocurrency activities, which has been under discussion since 2019.
Last month, the RBI asked banks not to cite its 2018 circular and clarified that banks can do their own KYC for crypto clients. With this, banks are now reassessing the situation, but several banks currently lack the technical expertise to make a supervisory assessment on these transactions.
IndusInd Bank today, launched the ‘IndusEasyCredit’, a fully digital end to end platform leveraging India’s public digital infrastructure- ‘Indiastack’ to offer personal loans and credit cards in a paperless and cashless manner.
The stack leverages more than 35 interfaces to digitally verify KYC and employment information as well as analyse bank statements. It then uses advanced analytics and machine learning based models to assess eligibility in real time. Post this, the customer can conduct Video KYC and get the loan disbursed into his or her account after executing the agreement digitally.
“Over the past few months, we have been constantly working towards creating a comprehensive solution that enables customers with easy access to credit from the comfort and safety of their homes. ‘IndusEasyCredit’ is a testament to that effort which provides customers with the flexibility to avail a personal loan or a credit card on a single platform, in a completely seamless, paperless, and digital manner.” said Charu Mathur, Chief Digital Officer & Head-Business Strategy, IndusInd Bank in a statement.
Existing as well as non-IndusInd Bank customers can avail an instant personal loan by following the below mentioned steps:
Complete e-KYC and provide basic details to check eligibility (only applicable for non-IndusInd Bank customers)
Select the amount from the pre-approved loan offer as required. Accept the auto populated interest rate, processing fee and EMI amount.
Complete Video KYC (only applicable for non-IndusInd Bank customers).
Authenticate the request for enabling instant money credit into their account, after digitally signing the agreement.
The money gets transferred to the customer’s account instantly on completion of this procedure.
In order to avail credit card, customers can simply follow the below steps:
Complete e-KYC and provide basic details to check eligibility (only applicable for non-IndusInd Bank customers).
Customers will get the pre-approved offer.
They can then select the desired IndusInd Bank Credit Card product.
Complete Video KYC (only applicable for non-IndusInd customers).
On completion of Video KYC, the said card is dispatched to the customer.
Currently, customers can only apply for the ‘IndusEasyCredit’ facility through the Bank’s website. It will also be made available shortly on IndusMobile, the Bank’s mobile banking application, according to the statement.
Maintaining the cost of acquiring customers digitally is not easy as multiple banks & Fintechs are targeting the same set of customer base segment as compared to the physical branch led model where the costs are fixed.
Organisations acquiring customers digitally have often been at the mercy of aggregators and big search engines and so is the case similar with banks trying to funnel in customers through digital marketing and other platforms.
Ritesh Saxena, Head – Direct Banking at IndusInd Bank in a conversation with ETBFSI talks about the strategy at IndusInd Bank with digital acquisition, how digital marketing plays a role, important metrics and the partnership model. Edited Excerpts:
Ritesh Saxena, Head – Direct Banking, IndusInd Bank
Q. What is the strategy for digital business at IndusInd Bank?
The banking service is digital in nature with cash being the only physical aspect. To a large extent digital business in banking is evolving as compared to 3-4 years back when a lot of digital enablement was in nature of servicing only and not a way of doing business.
As a challenger bank, we had to be aggressive. Digital business evolved in two stages, one organic and inorganic – website, social media presence, ATMs which are web-enabled, mobile applications are now transformed into customer acquisition channels whereas previously functioned more from servicing point. Regulations and public infrastructure like Aadhar has helped a lot, we brought onboarding platforms on our web to acquire for both our asset & deposit customers.
KYC is just one part of onboarding, the customer does not give any business till he transacts or passes credit worthiness test. Getting these journeys completely digital, frictionless and seamless is important to ensure prospective customers don’t drop off.
Investments have gone beyond technology infrastructure, like – analytics, evolving credit models, partnerships with payment service providers. These internal and external parts come together to funnel the customer in and service them. The loss in physical onboarding through branches was off-set by digital acquisition channel through digital marketing with seamless onboarding to ensure there was no blip to business.
Q. How is digital marketing leveraged for direct digital business?Digital marketing is the other area of evolution which is core to digital business. While we create the digital platforms, we need to have a digital plan to work with platforms like Google and Facebook to get the right economics of acquiring customers. All Fintechs, start-ups have realised that creating a product, simple user journey is perhaps the easier part given all the tech evolution is happening, but getting the customer economics in (cost of customer acquisition) which does not kill you is tough. Reality is these Big Tech platforms don’t let you do digital marketing in a cost-friendly manner. That is the sad story which a lot of start-ups face and burn a lot of cash.
We banks don’t have investors (VC) funds to burn to get customers as it’s a P&L involved decision of optimising your cost of acquisition through various digital marketing initiatives like SEO, Redirecting advertisements and a lot of other initiatives.
Getting a customer and is he really worth following as few might funnel but not all are worth following. These are things that take time to perfect and eventually get the right implemental economics.
Digital marketing led acquisition is a different ball game as physical acquisition costs are fixed and given. Also, important to note banks are eyeing for the same pie of the business on the same medium for the same customer, unit economics really matters here.
Fintechs have mono-product lines as compared to banks that have multiple products, if a customer funnels in and may not have qualified for a credit card; we can pitch him a credit card against his FD so he gets serviced by some other product.
Most customers are price sensitive and everything is price led, it allows you to optimise the investments to get the customer by ensuring if he is not satisfied with one product you are able to get him another product and it’s a win-win.
Q. How does it work with the existing customer base?
Existing customers have been traditionally covered by RMs or through branches or contact centers for cross-sell or upgrading. The new digital platforms backed by analytics have allowed us to run it centrally without the need of assisted channels as a start point.
The bank has invested in a very Deep Artificial Intelligence led engine which runs across products and client databases from different segments like deposit to credit card to vehicle finance. I have that same universe within the bank. All we need is to create an ability similar to what aggregators (like Paisabazaar, Bank Bazaar) created for the open market.
A lot of good work and actual business has happened on the asset cross sell which is personal loan and credit card offerings to customers who keep their salary account or deposit account with us. More than 50% of our retail lending, deposit and even wealth business happens through digital channels and not just through open market but through a lot of analytics led, direct to customer, app based, email based and if required even tele-assisted follow-up for closure and a lot of these businesses have moved out of branches.
This is the next version of retail banking in India, if IndusInd Bank has 2000 branches in India which do an X business, for it to go 2X do we need 2X branches? or can I move all of the next X business to digital platforms without having to put a brick and mortar branch. That’s essentially the go-to. Physical channels will continue but a lot of the assisted business is moving to the sky RM models (digital).
Q. How are the metrics around digital marketing?
We doubled and tripled the investments in the digital marketing front across products and services not because we wanted to offset the dip in branch led business but because more customers were reaching out through these digital platforms. Pull-based business opportunities like health insurance were also in demand; a lot of digital marketing initiatives got fast tracked.
Video KYC changed the economics and at a fraction of physical cost we can do the physical KYC and do multiple business with him or would’ve been only one business of deposit before video-KYC where the customer wasn’t verified face-to-face.
On vectors being measured, earlier things were not straight through; most of our digital marketing arrangement partners were on the basis of cost per lead which captured mobile number either paid on per lead or impressions. Now the straight through journey changed the equation on this, earlier you were at the mercy of the aggregators and what would be the quality of the lead as banks make money on conversion of that lead.
The equation has moved from paying per lead to paying per converted customer and some of those have helped focus to target better and ensure that the same lead is not going to dozens of banks and see sub-optimal conversion.
Digital business is not only about aggregator arrangements it’s also on the payment side where merchant aggregators which are country wide operating in the payment gateway space and non-digital merchant led aggregators like old-age Pine Labs and similar players and how they’ve metamorphosed and deeply integrated with banks through APIs.
These payment partners get merchant customers to bank equivalent to current account journeys which have been created with more control as entity verification is bigger science than individual verification. For entities, you’ve to check their registrations, office, etc. all these risk parameters have been added to the onboarding mechanism and we have been among the first ones to launch a digital current account onboarding.
India‘s largest cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty said that it is yet to receive any show cause notice from the Enforcement Directorate.
Enforcement Directorate in a release had said it has issued a show cause notice to the crytpocurrency exchange and its directors Nischal Shetty and Sameer Mhartre under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) transactions involving cryptocurrencies worth Rs 2790.74 crore.
ED had initiated an investigation under FEMA 1999, on the basis of the ongoing money-laundering probe into Chinese-owned illegal online betting applications.
ED has issued Show Cause Notice to WazirX Crypto-currency Exchange for contravention of FEMA, 1999 for transaction… https://t.co/dcU8XlOugB
During the course of the investigation ED observed that the accused Chinese nationals had laundered proceeds of crime worth Rs 57 crore approximately by converting the INR deposits into crypto-currency Tether (USDT) and then transferring the same to Binance (exchange registered in Cayman Islands) Wallets based on instructions received from abroad.
Nischal Shetty said, “WazirX is in compliance with all applicable laws. We go beyond our legal obligations by following Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) processes and have always provided information to law enforcement authorities whenever required. We are able to trace all users on our platform with official identity information. Should we receive a formal communication or notice from the ED, we’ll fully cooperate in the investigation.”
As digital adoption picks up across the board, RBL Bank continues to remain aggressive on its branch expansion to improve its presence across the country. RBL Bank’s head for branch banking, Surinder Chawla, talks about the strategy of branch expansion and business, user behaviour evolving across retail and MSMEs and the way forward. Edited Excerpts:
Surinder Chawla, Head – Branch Banking, RBL Bank
Q. How’s the shift in the branch banking business strategy taking into consideration the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns subsequently?
Multiple changes have happened before and after the lockdown.
The last 3-4 months have been very different from how we look and approach things. The first big change is digitisation. Customer adoption of digital technologies has been very high compared to earlier. That is a big change, and it is a good change from customers as well from the bank point of view. The second big change is that earlier you had to meet clients to get work done and all that is done digitally even from a product perspective. The third big factor is some products which were push based, because of the pandemic/ health concerns of the client, those have become very accepted by the clientele. The biggest jump that has happened is in health insurance. As a strategy what all is happening is our investment in digital has become digitally large. If you want to scale up, serve customers digitally, whether it is full Net banking or Whatsapp banking. We have put almost all of our products and services on the digital platform.
From the liabilities and CASA point of view, engagement has become so much more because digitally frequency is here. The strategy is digital, engaging and making sure that the client does most of the things on his own. We roughly have now 20-25,000 digital accounts being added per month and it was around 12,000 in January-February 2021. Last year this number would have been 5-7,000 before lockdown. Q. How is the impact on SME and small business clientele? Is the same shift happening at the same speed or is it slow there?
If someone wants to trade in cash, then you have to connect with them physically. Apart from that, everything is digitally possible. We have a way of processing documents digitally. Most of the clients’ needs can be carried through digital channels. RBI last week allowed video KYC for sole proprietorship. Of course, cash will be an exception. There is also enablement happening for the business guys. That shift, which was slow so far, will become very fast paced now. Q. How’s the user behaviour evolving in MSME clientele and how neo-bank platforms are targeting them?
That is working well. Let us not forget that an MSME business client has never done something digitally, he has done digitally but also done physically. All the neo-banks are providing a layer over the current account and other services like invoicing, billing, tax planning, etc. That demand was there earlier and still there. The changes were primarily on the account opening side. Physical interaction was required but now the video-KYC is available, it is a game-changer. More and more banks are taking trade documents digitally. More and more banks will move services digitally. So, that pace is bound to pick up. The problem will be for those banks who want to deal in cash.Q. What are the plans for RBL bank in the branch expansion model? Would you look at rationalising?
So talking about RBL in specific, we do not have a large network. We only have 429 branches as of March. For us, branch expansion plans continue to be aggressive as we must increase our coverage. Let us not forget that Indian consumers may do a lot of work digitally, having the branch closer will increase their confidence. Branch in my view will still play an important role. The difference will be that the number of branches will decrease compared to before. While engagement is digital, the Indian consumer may want to meet someone for confidence. We are planning to add 75 more branches compared to 40-45 branches last year as we have a small network.
Q. How is the impact of the second Covid wave panning out on customers acquisition, transactions etc?
I will divide the impact on the liabilities and asset sides. For the liabilities apart from the fact that people are not coming to the branches, we were able to do fairly well. We have ramped up our digital capabilities. The number of accounts opened was in the same range as what we were doing earlier. From that angle, there has not been a significant impact. In terms of transactions, only the cash transactions have taken a hit, our customers transacted digitally. The engagement rate was high, and customers did not really face a challenge.
Q. As unlocking of lockdowns has started, what’s the way forward?
On the liabilities side, I expect to be fairly good. We have been spending more time and effort in improving the quality of our liability profile as well. We look to make sure that our book is more granular, our cost of funds has come down, we are able to get more customers. We plan to open branches, we expect that CASA ratio improves.
The RBI on Wednesday relaxed KYC (know-your-customer) norms to enable the process to be completed remotely and prevent banks from freezing accounts in which such data has not been updated.
“In respect of customer accounts where periodic updation of KYC is due and pending as on date, no restrictions on operations shall be imposed till December 31, 2021, for this reason alone, unless warranted under instructions of any regulator/ enforcement agency/ court of law,” the RBI said in a circular. Earlier, SBI had given similar instructions to its branches after a directive from the finance minister through a tweet.
While the central bank’s directive gives relief to customers of all RBI-regulated entities, a larger reform is the enabling of digital KYC. Currently, banks are completing the KYC process for individuals remotely using video-based customer identification (V-CIP). This process has been extended for businesses including proprietorship firms, authorised signatories and beneficial owners of legal entities.
Earlier, accounts opened using Aadhaar-based e-KYC were treated as ‘limited KYC’ accounts. These will now be treated as fully compliant accounts. Entities looking to complete the KYC process can now use KYC Identifier of Centralised KYC Registry (CKYCR) for V-CIP.
MUMBAI: Bankers on Wednesday welcomed the measures announced by RBI as a nuanced attempt to address not just economic concerns but public health issues as well.
SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said the unscheduled statement from Governor Shaktikanta Das has targeted moves to alleviate the troubles faced by multiple sectors.
“…the series of measures announced today reflect a novel approach. The decision to create a dedicated Rs 50,000 crore fund for ramping up Covid related healthcare infrastructure reflects RBI’s commitment to transcend boundaries by addressing not only economic health but also public health,” he said in a statement.
He also appreciated the decision to augment the lending firepower of small finance banks (SFBs) through priority sector tag, restructuring framework for individuals and small businesses, cash reserve ratio flexibility for lending to SMEs and the measures to help the state governments through ways and means advances relaxations.
MFIN, a self-regulatory organisation of micro-lenders, was very appreciative of the attempt to infuse liquidity for small MFIs by classifying and recognising SFBs’ lending to smaller NBFC-MFIs as priority sector lending.
The body’s chief executive Alok Misra said Das had met sector representatives looking at the “severity of the situation” and followed it up with the steps on Wednesday.
From the non-bank lenders, Mahindra Finance‘s Managing Director and Vice Chairman Ramesh Iyer said the measures aimed at individuals, small businesses and micro borrowers are a timely move, and welcomed the restructuring proposals.
“It’s (restructuring) an important announcement looking at the present economic landscape, this will provide as an impetus for businesses to recover from COVID-19 pandemic blues,” he said, adding that the moves to rationalise certain components of the extant KYC (know your customer) norms will support financial institutions to operate in a more efficient way.
Paul K Thomas, who heads the ESAF Small Finance Bank, said the RBI’s core focus on small lending and the last-mile delivery of credit to individuals and small businesses and the schemes to boost the provision of immediate liquidity to SFBs will go a long way in expediting economic recovery.
SFBs will now be permitted to give fresh lending to smaller micro-finance institutions (MFIs) with asset size of up to Rs 500 crore for on-lending to individual borrowers as priority sector lending.
This will add impetus to the SFBs who have been consistently playing a prominent role by acting as a conduit for the last-mile delivery of credit to individuals and small businesses, he said.
Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Group President for Consumer Banking, Shanti Ekambaram said the RBI has announced some timely liquidity measures that will provide relief to the most vulnerable by ensuring credit flow to individuals and small businesses and also give them greater repayment flexibility.
Viral Sheth, finance controller at Moneyboxx Finance, said several states with a huge rural population like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are witnessing sharp rise in new cases and it was imperative to provide a helping hand to vulnerable sections of individuals and small businesses.