WhatsApp will work with partners like banks and financial institutions in India to make it easier for people to access products such as insurance, microcredit and pension, its India Head Abhijit Bose said on Wednesday. The company will also support multiple pilots to test potential solutions to solve problems related to distribution of financial products, Bose said at the Global Fintech Fest.
The Facebook-owned company has been working for more than a year with banking partners to see how it can supplement their digital presence and accelerate the pace of financial access across segments and geographies in the country, Bose said.
“We now want to open up with more banks...Over this coming year to help simplify and expand banking services, especially to the rural and lower income segments...We also aim to expand our experiments with partners for other products that RBI highlighted as basic financial services, starting with micro pensions and insurance,” he added. Bose said the collective aim over the next 2-3 years is to be able to help low wage workers in the unorganised informal economy to easily access three products - insurance, microcredit and pension.
