Recent times have witnessed a number of initiatives focusing on financial inclusion in the Financial Services Industry. With the industry influence continuing to be considerably skewed towards urban/tier 1 cities, the time is now right to consider the under-serviced markets from both a social and business perspective.
It is brought out that technology will act as a huge enabler to reach out to a new segment of customers and explore untapped markets in the financial services market. The emergence of smartphones, the increased accessibility of 3G and 4G networks, and other digital trends have increased customer expectations, and companies must be able to meet these expectations in a highly demand-elastic market.
Further, the reach of social media is expanding every day, from major cities to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India and as a channel provides companies with the ability to create highly tailored propositions Many internet penetration initiatives that try to leverage on innovative, lower-cost methodologies are further adding to this expansion.
The CII-PwC report focusses on the key distribution opportunities available to the financial services industry and how digital technologies are a formidable means to capitalise on them. Major digital models and solutions that can be adopted to increase financial distribution efficiencies are looked at and the risks and challenges that companies need to be aware of while considering these alternate distribution strategies are also highlighted.
The report was released by CII in association with its knowledge partner, PwC at the 3rd Financial Distribution Summit 2014 organized by CII on 18 December, 2014 at Mumbai.