Share Market Live

NSE

Fino Payments Bank is planning to ramp up higher margin products that is current and savings accounts (CASA) and cash management services (CMS). While speaking to CNBC-TV18, the company's COO, Ashish Ahuja, said that they expect contribution from high-margin products to increase to 30 percent in the coming months.

He said, “These are two high-margin products and these are the ones that we have been really pushing hard in the past year. We see that the growth that we are getting on these two products is really encouraging. We see that the number they are reporting broadly in the range of about 20 percent is where we are today. I think another about 12 to 18 months is where we believe that they would be at about a contribution to us around the 30 percent level.”

This is a significant increase for the company, which has seen its overall margin in the range of 21-22 percent in the past.

One of the main drivers of this growth is expected to be an increase in the company's merchant base. Ahuja expects the merchant base to double in the next 18 months, rising from its current level of 1.1 million.

Ahuja said, “We are at about close to 1.1 million merchant base and in the next about, I would say 18 months we plan to double this number at the run rates that we have been going. The main focus is on ensuring the productivity of the merchants and, adding new merchants naturally, so we are very bullish about this aspect.”

Read Here | Startling Valuation, Stricter Regulation: Indian fintechs are homebound

Meanwhile, Fino Payments expects growth to come from both urban and rural areas, with Ahuja noting that 80-85 percent of account openings currently come from rural India.

He said, “I don't see stress in the rural area. In fact, I would say rural is the biggest contributor to Fino’s P&L. In that respect at 80-85 percent of our account opening or other products throughputs come from rural India.”

He added, “Considering that I would say rural India is really on the up-move, because when I look at the digital transactions when I look at the data that we see within the company, it is 80 percent of my customers are reachable on WhatsApp.”

Finally, Ahuja confirmed that there are currently no corporate plans in place with Capri Global.

Also Read | Analysts choose to exercise caution on TCS post earnings