Financial Inclusion Using Television
Banking – A Paradigm Shift
(Potential of TVB for Capitalizing Television’s Existing Household Outreach as a Viable
Banking Service Delivery Channel and Financial Inclusion)
Backdrop: Countries
like India and Bangladesh have more people glued to the Television daily rather
than being online over the internet or a PC for that matter. There are more
dish antennas in a village than the internet cable or WiFi in towns and
needless to state that there is always an ease of operation for a TV set rather
than a PC or Laptop with an internet. While financial inclusion has been most
talked about means of cash transfers and prudent money management, including
micro-wealth management, it has always been looked from a supply perspective. Challenges
of money management are never static, nor are the solutions and hence new and
innovative ways will have to be explored to provide access to finance and
banking services for the rural and urban poor.
The government of MP in India has created a phenomenally
inclusive model of Samrudhhi (Prosperity) that captured a complete database of
its citizens and offers real time cash transfers as part of social protection
to the poor in their banking accounts. It has displayed a remarkable synchronization
and harmony between the Government Departments, Bankers including Central Bank,
Field Level Staff and the Civil Societies. An Entitlement based benefits have
started reaching to the bank accounts within a 5 kms distance from each village
using the ultra-small branches or customer service points of the sub service
area bank branches. However, in the next advancing phase the government is also
considering a pilot for cashless banking and cashless villages as part of financial
deepening that could offer regulated financial products.
Television Banking: The
Television Banking (TVB) is yet to penetrate in the length and breadth of the Indian
subcontinent and yet, it offers huge potential and tremendous opportunities for
financial inclusion leading to cashless villages. The TVB enables customers to
conduct banking business with television and TV set-top box as the terminal and
remote control for the operational tool based on the cable TV broadband
network. TVB exploits television’s two-way communication property, associated
with digitalisation and existing reach to provide banking services such as
balance enquiry, teleshopping, account transfers, remittances, buying
insurance, pensions and mutual funds etc. TVB has the potential to cater to a
large subscriber base, educate people about the banking services / products and
offer branchless banking services thereby promoting sustainable financial
inclusion and deepening.
While the concept is more than a decade older, in Indian context
it has the potential of becoming another self-service channel following online
banking, telephone banking, mobile banking and ATM. Globally, as of now, it has
a limited number of customers, however, it will have plenty of room for
development with the help and promotion of digital television technology.
There are certain pre-requisites for TVB and T Commerce such
as:
Set-Top Box [STB] infrastructure to offer TV media in any of
the three prevalent modes:
·
Conditional Access System [CAS]
·
Direct-to-Home or Satellite TV [DTH]
·
IP-TV services [IPTV]
Secure Message Broker infrastructure between STB and banking
infrastructure.
Advantages: Compared
with online banking, television banking is closer to the life of everyone.
Customers of television banking do not need to purchase a computer or bear the
internet "jam"; compared with telephone banking, television banking
has a more direct trading interface and all-inclusive information display. Television
banking enables customers to complete banking transactions through the
television, have access to financial products and industry information, and
experience a more fashionable and convenient micro wealth management approaches
including financial literacy, the conspicuously missing element in inclusion.
While the language varies in every state, the dialect
changes every 100 miles in India. The advantage of TVB towards the use of the
local language would enable a more interactive environment for banking, and
would help in increasing trust in the system in sharp contrast to BCs who are
perceived as temporary salespersons because of the high attrition rate. Financial
literacy modules including the so called ‘teachable moments’ could be offered
using the TV media itself facilitating masses to learn baking activities and financial
management through their favourites like Amitabh Bachhans and Shahrukh Khans. Similarly,
voice input would not only make transactions easier, but also provide greater
security and authentication thereby reducing frauds. The Saas - Bahu and Sensex
fame can be customized for the rural poor.
As in any other state or developing nation, the Samrudhhi
model in MP has been facing internet connectivity issues and hence such problems
with the mobiles handsets, micro ATMs, POS etc that BCs carries could be done
away with it. For, families ensure, even if through the use of inverters, that
electricity supply for television is available. Finally, doing TVB in the
comfort of the home will increase the overall confidence and higher level of adoption
of banking habits, making financial inclusion viable and allow people to buy
various regulated financial products and services.
Given the fact that most part of the developing world is yet
to rollout online interconnectivity across their geographical parameters,
coupled with limited basic computer know-how in remote corners, online banking channel
feats can only be complemented by using ubiquitous presence of television
infrastructure as a viable channel.
Harnessing Ecosystem:
TV is available to the complete family, including elderly parents and the young
children, while mobile phone is generally available with the earning member of
the family. Moreover, the ease of operating and interactive interface may make
TVB a very promising solution. Nations like Bangladesh and India have great
prospects of financial inclusion using the TVB route. In India alone, the TV subscriber
base has crossed 150 million households reaching on an average around 750 million
individuals.
The Governments along with their Central Banks and
regulators will have to display the same level of commitment and
synchronization as was showcased in MP that now follows the G – 20 Global Best
Practices on Financial Inclusion. The technology for TVB and the capacity
development of the stakeholders need to be firmed up. The Bankers and the
governments must allocate substantial resources to develop appropriate, uniform
and easy to use frontend technology and undertake pilots to test the same with
different operators and geographical locations. Once an appropriate, frugal and
scalable technology is achieved, TVB could have the potential to serve the
masses at very low cost and little human intervention and mobilise resources
for the formal financial sector. It can also offer regulated financial products
at the doorsteps, nay, living room steps.
A recent report by the Asian Development Bank Institute recently
made an observation about the scale of growth in China where Chongqing-based three
Gorges Bank worked with its area cable operator to deliver banking services via
television. While this was a new service launched in early 2013, it would
provide greater accessibility and more intuitive interfaces than personal
computer banking, particularly for older urban clients. If Chinese are here,
Can Indians and Bangladeshis be far Behind?