Financial services should be available for everyone, at least that’s what Manish Khera thought too. But taking matters into his own hands made it possible!

The fact that almost 10% of the human population lives impoverished lives, in this technologically developed day and age, is sad and unfortunate.

Manish Khera, an Indian entrepreneur, came up with the idea to provide financially disadvantaged people of India with access to banks, by means of financial services.

Manish created FINO Payments bank intending to solicit and service consumers. Manish was focused on helping those living below the poverty line with no access to banking institutions. How?- By investing in savings accounts, electronic transfer of funds, buying insurance, and providing loans through banking correspondents.

Stay with us as we explore Manish’s altruistic spirit and how he made banking services available to the underprivileged people of India.

Forging of the Iron

Manish was a student at the University of Delhi, studying at the College of Engineering. He earned himself a degree and became an electrical engineer. However, another academic topic caught Manish’s eye and drew his attention towards the intriguing world of banking and financial services.

After obtaining his degree in electrical engineering, Manish enrolled at the College of Business and Administration (Finance) at the University of Delhi, acquiring his Master’s degree in record time. But his thirst for knowledge didn’t quite settle, so he enrolled at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Manish received his second Master’s degree, this time in Philosophy in Environment and Development. He became a scholar of the DFID, the Department for International Development, which is an institution responsible for promoting sustainable development while attempting to abolish global poverty. This was the spark that ignited Manish’s wish to make a change for the better in India, his motherland.

Beginning of the Journey

Manish’s first experience in the banking sector was with the ICICI bank in India. He started his journey there in 1993, enlarging his experience in structured and corporate lending. After becoming fluent in transaction and banking technology, Manish formed the Alternate Channels Group (ACG), inside the ICICI bank.

The foundation of this organization was intended to meet the requirements of Indian nationals who were deprived of banking services at the time of its founding. The ACG sought to create creative and alternative methods of delivering financial services to the underserved segments of the market, intending to increase access to financial services.

During his working days with ICICI bank, Manish had the opportunity to work with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). At that time, the RBI’s prospect of every Indian citizen having their own bank account was paramount, and the Government was on board, too. However, it felt as if it was almost too good to be true since the idea was unfavorable for the banking sector in India.

The banking sector in India did not want to open physical branches in the slums and rural areas of India, to them, it just wasn’t cost-effective, however ruthless that may sound.

But, where financial institutions didn’t see a feasible business case, Manish envisioned a market of 90 million potential clients.

This is where Manish saw the opportunity and stepped up!

A Vision for a Better India

Manish incubated FINO Paytech Limited in 2006 and became its CEO and Managing Director. What he did was integrate low-priced innovation with specific skill sets and customer ability, utilizing the absence of financial infrastructure in India.

With the clear vision in mind, Manish did its best to bring India a step forwards toward modern-day living, financially speaking.

When the Reserve Bank of India gave the green light for Business Correspondents to provide services to potential clients from underprivileged categories of citizens, Manish grasped the notion and acted swiftly. He used FINO as an intermediary between banks and clients and successfully delivered finance services, with profit, to the micro-segment (the financially deprived citizens).

Among the potential clients were betel-leaf sellers, rickshaw chauffeurs, manual laborers, street-food sellers, and many other citizens with difficulty accessing banks and financial services. Simply, people who have difficulty making a living, and to whom creating a savings account might be the last thing that pops in their head, were Manish’s target audience.

One of the executive officers at FINO Paytech recalled a situation where he asked one snack vendor on the streets of Satara if he had put funds in a savings account. The vendor responded that he did not have any money left because he was putting them in a chit fund, a type of rotation credit system which is known not to be very cost-efficient.

FINO encourages individuals like the snack vendor to open bank accounts, use electronic funds transfers, take out loans, and get health insurance. FINO aims to become a sort of financial supermarket at the bottom of the financial pyramid.

What Manish accomplished with both the ACG and Fino Paytech was indeed revolutionary, some even stated that it was the most valued success endeavor in the micro-segment class.

With over 50,000 Business Correspondent locations across the region, FINO has become the world's biggest financial service provider for more than 80 million Indian consumers. It wasn’t long before FINO Paytech Ltd. got so widespread and sought-after, that it simply had to enlarge, rebranding itself to FINO Payments Bank.

Gearing up on Funds

In the years before evolving into FINO Payments Bank, FINO PayTech has successfully raised $37.6 million in investment over the course of two fundraising rounds. Their most recent round of fundraising, which took place on July 29, 2016, was an undisclosed amount. The leading investor in the second funding round was Bharat Petroleum Corp., an Indian oil marketing company.

It has been announced that Fino Payments Bank, the successor to Fino PayTech, has raised Rs 539 crore (or just over US$71 million) from anchor investors ahead of its inaugural share sale.

It was agreed by the company to distribute a total of 93,37,641 equity shares to 29 investors at a price of $0.76 per equity share, for a total of US$71 million, according to a circular posted by “Business Standard”.

Recognizing the Potential

Manish is a proponent of socially responsible enterprises that are also profitable. He has gained recognition for his contribution as one of India's leading thinkers in the areas of financial inclusivity and microfinancing.

The World Economic Forum has awarded Manish the title of "Young Global Leader of 2011."

"Entrepreneur of the Year 2011" by E&Y and "Outstanding Start-Up" by Forbes India Leadership Award 2012 are two more accolades that Manish has received.

Currently, FINO Payments Bank holds its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It’s a privately owned company employing more than 3000 people. So far, FINO has served more than 90 million customers, with the intention to help migrants from rural to urban areas in the following years.

After its initial public offering (IPO) was launched on October 29, 2021, its first appearance on the stock market was to follow on November 12, that same year. Fino Payments Bank would be the first payments bank to be listed on a stock market while still earning a profit.

During its first public offering, the firm got positive feedback from investors. In fact, on the final day of IPO bidding, on November 2, the part earmarked for retail investors was oversold by a factor of 5.92 times.

The difficulty that FINO is facing is to wean individuals away from their comfortable and generally traditional modes of saving and into a genuine, well-regulated financial intermediary where they may grow their savings.

As part of its evolution, FINO, which was founded by ICICI Bank in 2006 with the goal of providing technology to microfinance organizations and banks, is now describing itself as a business and banking technology platform with an extended services transport mechanism.

In layman's terms, it serves as a bank's agent in locations where the bank does not have a physical presence.

Staying on top of the Game

The impact that FINO Payments Bank has had on Indian society is enormous, financially speaking. Manish’s company has successfully educated and helped out citizens that were on the brink of poverty, with no knowledge or means to make a savings account, not to mention getting a loan or insurance.

After successfully fending off rivals like RazorPay, Citrus, and MobiKwik, among others, FINO has become the go-to bank’s agent for secure financial transactions.

Manish had succeeded in building FINO and opted out to invest and develop a mobile banking company that aids migrants to transfer funds - Yatra Tatra Sarvatra. He moved there in 2014 and has stayed there since. Manish created another company in 2016, ArthImpact, and aims at 600 million potential clients which do not have means of approach to traditional banking.

Manish’s story is a classic tale of how a man thirsty for knowledge can make it to the top, and expand his worldviews in the process of doing it.

Everyone is working for a profit, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot help other people while making bank.