Finin is a neobank, with a niche focus on helping its customers manage, save and invest their money in a simpler, smarter and faster way. Suman Gandham, founder and CEO of the company elaborates the concept:
Suman Gandham
N. Mohan: Can you briefly outline the proposed bank-related activities of Finin? Would you be complementing the existing banking system or will you be a competitor?
Suman Gandham: Finin is a savings- first consumer bank where we help our users to ‘Manage, Save and Invest’ their money in a simpler and smarter way. With our smart budgeting feature, users can get a granular level of categorization where they can observe their spending behaviour and manage their finances better. The goal-based savings feature helps users save money with automation, making it easier and faster for them to reach their ‘goals’.We do not see banks as our competitors; instead, they are our partners. We offer a hyper-personalized banking solution to our users.
What are the regulatory and compliance requirements for an entity like yours?
We are a neobank and not a challenger bank. While challenger banks have their own licenses and permits, neobanks depend on existing financial institutions with regulated licenses to piggyback on. In our case as well, we are partnering with an existing bank, which enables us to be RBI compliant.
How will you distinguish yourself from entities such as Google Pay, or Paytm or PhonePe?
Google Pay, Paytm and Phonepe are mobile payment apps, where they make it easier for users to pay merchants’ bills and they even provide FD, RD and SIPs. Finin, on the other hand, provides a technology- backed, consumer-first seamless banking solution. It helps users to better ‘manage, save and invest’, using data analytics, which the banks and fintech applications are currently failing.
Can you list some of the unique offerings that you propose?
If you see the fintech ecosystem in the last few years, all applications are pushing users to spend easily or lend money pushing them into a credit crunch. Finin’s main objective is to help users save money, build emergency funds and break the cycle of living from paycheck to paycheck or EMI to EMI. We want to make our customers’ money work for them instead of them working for it.
How do you intend to make processes relating to onboarding, transactions, security simpler for the customers?
Our onboarding process is as per RBI regulations and compliance. We are improving how people are going to manage and track their spends, which in turn, will help them in multiple ways to be more financially stable and independent. Security is our first and foremost priority and we never compromise on that. We have bank- grade security and PCI DSS and ISO 27001 certifications in place to address the same. I think Indian consumers today are more digitally savvy than those in any other country and are more open and adaptable to use new applications which provide more value to them.
Banking as a whole is heavily dependent on technology and banks are experimenting to introduce newer products and services leveraging on the latest developments. How do you propose to make a difference?
Banks have always been product-focused than consumer-focused. They assess the customers and put them into two brackets – their age, and their income. This is used as the reference point to eventually offer and push products, accordingly with no other consideration.
However, as a neobank, we focus on understanding the spending patterns and financial behaviour of our customers and then provide them with hyper-personalized features which will be relevant and useful for their requirements.
You have an alliance with SBM Bank. Do you intend to have alliances with other Indian banks?
Yes, we are open to partner with multiple banks and we are currently in discussions with some of them.
How do you propose to get customers? Are there any unique offers?
We are focusing a lot on digital marketing, influencer marketing and financial education content to onboard our customers. We have some jazzy viral plans in the roadmap. Our Beta invite was a huge success and we already have 10k+ users waiting to try our beta version.
Finally, in a nutshell, what is there for a customer in Finin?
A seamless banking experience, customer support they will love, a beautiful debit card with exciting features and incentives like 2% cash back on every purchase, mobile protection plan, flight delay cover and a metal card for first 500 users.
