Eko India Financial Services

Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian fintech company, servicing the State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, and Yes Bank, and provides banking services and mobile banking.[1][2][3] With Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company, it provides Bharti AXA Life - Bachat Bima, micro-insurance policies.[4]

Eko India Financial Services
TypePrivately held company
Founded2007
FounderAbhishek Sinha, Abhinav Sinha, Manoranjan Kumar, Sanjay Bhargava
Headquarters
New Delhi
,
India
Area served
Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mumbai, Lucknow
Key people
Abhishek Sinha (CEO)
Abhinav Sinha (VP–Business Development)
Servicesfinancial service - Mobile banking for unbanked section of the population
Number of employees
150-200
Websitewww.eko.co.in

It was established by 2 brothers Abhishek and Abhinav Sinha and two others in 2007. It allows low-wage immigrants workers in the Indian urban areas to remit money to their homes using mobile phones.

History

Based on the recommendations of the Khan Commission, the Reserve Bank of India, in its 2005-2006 policy year introduced the concept of 'Business Correspondents' to enhance financial inclusion in the Indian banking sector. At the time co-founder Abhishek Sinha, a graduate of BIT Mesra, was working with Mahindra Satyam, and was involved in developing a mobile commerce application for a foreign company.

Eventually inspired by a similar program in Brazil,[5] M-Pesa model in Kenya where Vodafone-enabled subscribers send cash to other phone users by SMS, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, both in the Philippines, Abhishek Sinha with brother Abhinav Sinha launched Eko in September 2007 with $0.5 million donated by family and friends as a financial service company providing peer-to-peer money transfers, cash deposits and withdrawal, wage and salary payments, micro-insurance, and micro-credit facilities to individuals through small neighbourhood shops, which became their banking agents. Eko planned to tie up with Centurion Bank of Punjab in 2008, to open accounts, which fell through after the latter merged with HDFC Bank, and the company hit a rough patch.[2][4]

Bill Gates visited the Uttam Nagar, New Delhi situated mobile banking project of Eko, in November 2008.[6] In March 2009 it received a "grant funding" of $1.78 million from CGAP Technology Program which is housed within the World Bank and co-funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[2][7]

In February 2009, State Bank of India (SBI), the largest state-owned banking and financial services company in India, appointed Eko Aspire Foundation as its official business correspondent, which works actively in the field, while its Eko India Financial Services provides technological and non-technological support to the former. Thus around October 2009, with another grant from CGAP Eko started operations[4] with the launch of 'SBI Mini Savings Bank Account' at Uttam Nagar, New Delhi on 23 February 2009, this allowed account holders to carry out financial transactions like deposit and withdrawal from their accounts through their mobile phones at various SBI Eko Customer Service Points, like local grocery stores, stationery stores, petrol pumps, PCOs and pharmaceutical shops in far flung villages of Bihar and Jharkhand and Delhi, where the low-wage people rarely have access to a banking system.

Meanwhile, it also tied up with ICICI Bank, which started a Apna Savings Account scheme.[2][8]

In April 2012, Eko was appointed by Yes Bank as a Business Correspondent to provide domestic money transfer services. The services went live in June 2012.

By January 2016, Eko had grown to manage ₹200 crore (₹20 million, or $30 million) among 1.1 million clients.[9]

Today it services 180,000 users through a network of 700 branches (banking agents) through "Customer Service Points" (CSP), located in neighborhood grocery and pharmacy stores. It has locations in Delhi NCR, six districts of Bihar and one district of Jharkhand state.[5][10][8]

See also

References
  1. "Locked out of the banking system". Mint. 11 January 2011.
  2. "Made in India: Featuring Branchless Banking by Eko/-". NASSCOM, EMERGE. 12 October 2010. Archived from the original on 31 December 2010.
  3. "RBI permits corporations to work as rural agents of banks". Mint Wall Street Journal. 29 September 2010.
  4. "At the bottom of the pyramid: Banking on the phone". Financial Express. 13 June 2010.
  5. Friedman, Thomas (2 November 2010). "Do Believe the Hype". The New York Times.
  6. "Gates pays low-key visit to tech start-up pilot project". Mint. 5 November 2008.
  7. "Eko's Sound". The Times of India. 24 April 2010.
  8. "Software: Company Overview: Eko India Financial Services Private Limited". Bloomberg Businessweek. 21 January 2011. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012.
  9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Eko India's Financial Inclusion Initiative". IBS Centre for Management Research (ICMR). Archived from the original on 24 February 2011.
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