Page 13 - Status Report

The Context

A large section of the Indian population (~500
million) continues to remain without access to
banking services. Traditional financial service
delivery models are inadequate to serve low-
income groups. This project aims to deliver
financial services efficiently to the common
man by leveraging existing retail shops, tele-
connectivity and banking infrastructure through
smartphone-based application mechanisms
integrating with the Unique Identification (UID) of
India Program.

The Initiative

Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. is a
technology company contributing to the
changing financial inclusion landscape by
integrating its platform with those of the Banking
sectors. The primary focus of Eko’s efforts is to
enable customers / agents to perform secure
financial transactions on any mobile without
installing an app on the phone or SIM. With
support from the U.S.-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund, Eko and IDmission LLC, USA
have jointly developed the world’s most usable and universal ‘strong’2-factor authentication solution
and a user interface that works across all mobile phones. This universal user experience is helping
build a P2P (peer-to-peer) network for payments and transfers. Eko’s innovation not only makes
the life of the customer easy but the person sitting across the counter also partakes of it. Eko’s
Assisted Model of banking allows for a quick, safe and secure financial transaction even though the
merchant sitting across the counter is not in the banking business per se.

The Outcome

As of today, hundreds of crores of rupees change hands through thousands of Eko Customer
Service Points (CSPs) in over 16 Indian states. Eko has 5,000 operational CSPs processing financial
transactions worth 70 million USD and acquiring 500,000 new customers per month. Leveraging
existing retail shops, tele-connectivity and banking infrastructure, Eko makes ‘cash in and cash out’
a simple process that is available from seven in the morning to eleven at night. Since a CSP can
be easily set up alongside an existing business such as a pharmacy, stationary or grocery store
by downloading just two basic pieces of data from the Eko website; this innovation has turned
thousands of regular merchants into entrepreneurs throughout India. The innovation is completely
integrated with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and National Payments
Corporation of India (NPCI) for Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS).

Status Report 13