PAYMENTS BANKS’ ROLE IN DIGITAL FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGE

Drive for “digital financial inclusion” has been a key policy factor in India for the last decade. Payments Bank is one of the recent most important strategy factors to fulfill this objective. This paper briefly discusses the structure and functions of payments banks as conceptualized and implemented. The primary goal of payments bank was enhancing the range of digital financial inclusion by leveraging the user friendly app-based financial service platform to provide effective services in a more accessible form for low-income households and small business firms. This study attempts to understand the expectations of the policy makers regarding the role of these new financial entities and their opportunities and challenges. In the last few years after their introduction, payments banks have not been able to perform satisfactorily in the profitability front probably due to their huge initial infrastructural costs. However, it is expected that in the years ahead, payments banks are going to play a larger role in achieving financial inclusion in India. In this paper, we have discussed the performance of the payments banks in the last few years and the opportunities and challenges they are likely to face in the future years.

过去十年来，推动“数字普惠金融（digital financial inclusion）”一直是印度的核心政策方向之一。支付银行（Payments Bank）是近年来实现该政策目标的关键战略举措之一。本文简要探讨了支付银行的概念构想与落地实施过程中的结构与职能。支付银行的核心目标在于，依托用户友好型的应用式金融服务平台，拓展数字普惠金融的覆盖范畴，以更具可及性的形式为低收入家庭与小微企业提供高效金融服务。本研究旨在探析政策制定者对这类新型金融机构的角色期许，以及其面临的机遇与挑战。自推出以来的数年间，受初期巨额基础设施成本拖累，支付银行的盈利表现始终未能达到预期水准。不过，业界普遍预期，未来数年支付银行将在印度推进普惠金融的进程中发挥更为关键的作用。本文亦探讨了支付银行近年的运营表现，以及其未来可能面临的机遇与挑战。