vritti
Trending Now
Now, this is one area which witnessed a lot
of activity in the past year. Wait, permit me
to rephrase-I mean the small and medium
enterprise and business loans side. The
consumer side is booming (of course), all
fueled by the basic need to bring more
customers into the financial fold. In so far,
the story seems to have gained traction-what
with 52 live mobile money-enabled credit
services in 2016, up from seven services in
2011. It doesn’t end there, of course. With
AI as the backbone powering the calculation
for credit eligibility criteria, rating, etc, expect
this segment to make headlines. And why
not? Several small players have forayed
into this field, both in the consumer and
commercial segments, with the sole purpose
of addressing the demand for credit services.
Needless to say, these services have, more
often than not, relied on machine learning
and big data to assess credit risk. The result?
Better and more streamlined services to
customers who need it the most! In fact, on the
same note, going forward, we expect to see
the demand increase significantly, primarily
from enterprise customers. Going a step
March 2018
7
Growth of live mobile
money-enabled credit services
52
2016
7
2011
forward, emerging markets (where mobile
money has firmly carved a niche) are set
to witness the leveraging of mobile-based
infor mation. The bottom-line? To help in deci-
sions related to credit. Having said that,
however, players who will focus on overall
customer engagement and leverage
technologies including machine learning
will lead the pack.
AI is, clearly, set to play a very important role
in all things mobile credit and loans-related!
AUGMENTED REALITY
VIRTUAL REALITY Waiting in the wings
It wouldn't be an understatement to say that
augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)
have transformed our world. In the financial
services space, though, it is still waiting in
the wings. So, instead of extolling on the
virtues of this technology, let's examine what it
can do in this space. First and foremost, I firmly
believe that players in then payments eco-
system ought to give this technology the
leverage it deserves. After all, it provides
ample opportunities for these players to
anticipate and keep pace with the customer's
ever-changing, ever-evolving requirements.
Not just that, it could present a viable channel
for these players to differentiate their offerings,
thereby catching (and retaining) the interest
of millennial and younger customers. After
all, isn't that the bottom-line?
Just a quick side-note, Goldman Sachs has
estimated the AR/VR space to be pegged at
$80 billion by 2025. Clearly, not a flash-in-
the-pan technology, this!