Business correspondents seek self-regulatory body

BENGALURU: Business correspondents, or retail agents responsible for driving lastmile financial inclusion, have asked for an industrial level self-regulatory organisation so that a uniform standard can be maintained across the segment.

In a closed-door meeting held between the Committee on Deepening of digital Payments headed by Nandan Nilekani and members of Business Correspondents Federation of India, the RBI mandated committee was apprised of ways in which the industry can be strengthened. “We have suggested to the committee that a self-regulatory organisation for BCs can be explored, which will help bring uniform standardisation for the sector,” said Anand Kumar Bajaj, chairman of the communications committee at BCFI and chief executive of Nearby Technologies.

In a presentation made by the federation that ET saw, the body said BCs should be allowed to partner with multiple banks so that innovative financial products can be taken past the last mile and also force partner banks to remain agile. “If the partner bank is facing technical challenges on a specific day, entire service goes down which is harmful for poor people who cannot waste their time waiting for resumption of services,” said Bajaj. “It will also help us introduce innovative products with different lenders for our customers.”


GST being slapped on BCs for fund transfer to non-Jan Dhan accounts has also been a sticky issue. Bajaj said his delegation told the committee that the BC does not access or the visibility to know whether the beneficiary account is a Jan Dhan account or not, since most of them are interbank transactions.

The government should make all transactions at the BC outlet at ‘nil’ GST, they said in the presentation.