Exclusive | Payment systems in India are inefficient: Beam Money's Anand Shrivastav

BEAM, a revolutionary cashless mobile payment system allows unbanked and banked customers to transact with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Customers can use sms, wap, app, internet or even a landline to transact and persons without these facilities can transact taking the assistance of Beam Sahayaks (facilitator) in their neighborhood. Beam Sahayaks are educated unemployed youth, particularly women who earn income by selling Beam products and services even from the comfort of their home thereby giving them  opportunities to supplement their household income and thus become economically empowered. Beam services are availed by registering free via a simple SMS to establish an account automatically.

Beam Money Private Limited, an ISO 9001 certified company based out of New Delhi has been providing corporate banking transaction services (CBRS) to banks and transacts over Rs. 1,800 crores annually. The Beam Mobile Payment System was launched in 2009 after receiving Reserve Bank of India’s Certificate of Authorization.

Adgully caught up with Anand Shrivastav, Chairman & Managing Director, Beam Money to talk more about the company.
When asked about the initiative, he said, “With Beam, our customers can use their mobile at any time, from any place while on the go. As all the transactions are digital, consequently they are cashless.”

Speaking about the mobile payment scenario in India and how much acceptability is seen by the industry, Shrivastav said, “Over 60% of the 1.2 billion Indians are less than 25 in age, making India one of the youngest nations in the world with a fast growing literacy rate. Lack of opportunity at local level forces migration to cities. In last 75 years banks have only been able to reach 30,000 of 600,000 villages. Thus, there are over 700 million unbanked persons who cannot benefit from the nation’s economic growth and global commerce participation. Currently payment systems in India are inefficient.”

“Outstation cheques take 10-30 days to credit and postal money order up to 45 days! Thus the migrant population living in cities is dependent on informal methods to remit money. Many of the 700 million are fit candidates for a variety of financial services. However banks/MFIs are unable to serve them due to lack of distribution and high transaction cost,” he explained.
Adding further, Shrivastav said, “On the other hand explosive growth of mobile telecom has connected 800 million+ Indians living in the remotest villages. This is nearly four times the total number of bank accounts! Enabling people to transact using mobile phones presents an unprecedented large opportunity. Due to the wide acceptability of mobile, depending on which company you talk to, the acceptability has been very encouraging indeed.”

Telling us about their Beam 'Sahayak' initiative and women empowerment initiatives, he said, “The proportion of unemployed is highest for the age group 20-24 in India. Amongst them, the lot of educated women in rural areas is highest, even though this problem plagues urban educated females too. The social stigma attached to women working is yet to be overcome.”
Given the above scenario Beam engages young, educated persons who are unemployed and predominantly women as Beam Sahayaks. These Sahayaks serve the customers by providing Beam services in the neighbourhood/society/colony where they live. With a mobile in her hand, a Beam Sahayak, can not only transact for herself, but also supplement her family income while tending to her family.

When asked about their growth and marketing strategies, he explained saying, “Beam created its brand equity using the following marketing and promotional activities. We do mass advertising on TV, radio and print besides digital online marketing. We also do on ground branding activities and also do promotions.”
On asking about Beam’s future plans Shrivastav said  “Beam’s future plans are to continually expand our bouquet of services on one hand; on the other hand to widen and deepen our distribution network and also keep increasing our customer base.”

He also told us that some of the services planned to be introduced are micro pensions, insurance, mutual fund products, banking products besides international money transfer. In the next five years Beam endeavours to have 100 million customers and100,000 Beam Sahayaks.

BEAM services include home delivery & shopping payments, domestic money transfers, telecom/DTH-TV recharge, utility bill payments, travel bookings, e commerce payments, banking transactions, bookings for movies etc. The registration is free, paperless and compatible with any phone or  bank . Transactions ensure safety with no financial details of the subscriber retained. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]