Boosting the Business Case for Agents

This is the second piece in the five-part series launching CGAP’s Agent Management Toolkit. The toolkit is based on more than a year of research that yielded data on more than 16,000 agents in Brazil, India, and Kenya. In-depth interviews were conducted with 466 agents, agent network managers and providers, including mobile network operators, banks, MFIs and technology companies.

Today’s guest blogger is Prakash Lal, from Financial Inclusion Network & Operations Ltd. (FINO), which we found to have sophisticated insights on managing agents. FINO agents and technology connect more than 27 million Indians with 23 banks, 10 MFIs, 5 insurance companies and 15 government entities, via more than 11,000 POS terminals covering one-third of India. We’ve asked FINO to shed some light on how they boost the business case for their agents (referred to in India as “Business Correspondents”).

FINO was founded on 13th July, 2006 with the single objective of building technologies to enable financial institutions (FIs) to serve the under-served and the unbanked sector and also to service the technology requirements of entities engaged in servicing the bottom of the pyramid customers. Every step we’ve taken on technology, we’ve taken an equally important step forward in developing a highly-distributed, reliable network of Business Correspondents (BCs), whom we fondly call “Bandhus”, connecting clients to our technology and onward to the financial institution of their choice.

BCs are a critical link in our service delivery channel, and we invest a great deal in ensuring that working as a BC is attractive. Most of our BCs have other sources of income as well, meaning FINO needs to provide enough income to ensure that BCs will devote an adequate share of their time to the FINO business. We calculate that extra income to be, on average, INR 2500-3000 (USD 55-65) per month. This amounts to around USD 2 per day, which may not sound significant, but for a rural Indian it is welcome incremental income. Further, many of our BCs are also motivated by the desire to help their community and the social standing which comes with being allied with a high-tech product.

In addition, there are four points which strengthen the business case for our BCs:

• Multiple Products: FINO has a complete suite of products to meet the financial inclusion needs of financial institutions. A multiple product suite roll-out enhances a BC’s option of increasing the number of transactions, hence an increase in their commission, as per the varied customer requirements. Product innovation in FINO is derived from its deep insight into the requirements of the client segment gained from pioneering work done with MFIs, banks and research organizations.
• Financial Literacy: A regular saving habit by the customer will ensure regular transactions and thus more commission for the BC. FINO is doing various financial literacy projects with World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Microfinance Opportunities (MFO), UNDP and NABARD.
• FINO puts up the capital for our BCs and our staff play a large role in helping agents manage liquidity. FINO Block Coordinators manage approximately a dozen BCs and typically visits them every one to two days to retrieve excess cash or deliver new cash. In other words, if we look at the 9 drivers of the agent business case in CGAP’s Agent Management Toolkit, FINO removes the first two: upfront capital, liquidity management. We internalize that into our own business, making it much easier and more attractive for our BCs.
• We also pay our agents a fixed salary, in addition to per transaction commissions. This creates some certainty for our BCs as far as their income is concerned. We believe these are the best ways to build a viable network of agents in rural areas.

Take the case of one of FINO’s BC in Uttar Pradesh state, Md. Saleem. He runs a general store and also works with FINO. He handles 24 transactions on a typical day. His largest cash transaction on any given day is US$107 (INR 5,000), which effectively determines his cash-on-hand required to handle the largest transaction. A FINO Block Coordinator usually visits daily to pick up and deliver cash, and can get there within a few hours in case extra liquidity is needed for a very large deposit or withdrawal. Saleem uses his place of work—the general store—to conduct most agent transactions, obviating the need (and expense) for a dedicated agent location. As part of FINO’s “doorstep banking” model, Saleem also travels to client homes in three surrounding villages, incurring a transport expense. He nets a daily profit of US$1.84, which is very close to our target for BCs.

- Prakash Lal