Zero Mass plays a pivotal role in Greater Financial Inclusion (FI) for the hitherto unbanked population through a countrywide network of Customer Service Points (CSPs)
About Zero Mass
ZERO MASS Pvt. Ltd. (ZMPL), previously known as Zero Microfinance & Savings Support Pvt. Ltd. (ZMS), are Business Correspondents (BC) of banks for Financial Inclusion (FI) across the country. We extend basic banking services to underprivileged and unbanked populations by operating micro-banks in rural and remote areas of India, which have traditionally struggled with financial inclusion. As a BC, we enrol new customers and follow up on transactions by utilizing the Bank-in-a-Box methodology. ZMPL has been engaged as National Level BC of State Bank of India (SBI) since 2007.
Our network serves over 15 Mn basic savings bank accounts opened through the channel and available to ‘All customers of All Banks in India’ for domestic remittances, Aadhar based AEPS transactions and Debit Card transactions.
ZMPL BC network currently processes transactions with a Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of over Rs.4000 Crs per month
Zeromass Outlet, Village Kalwas, Haryana
ZMPL covers 500 districts across all states in India, with 28 branch offices and 500 employees handling the onboarding, training, hand-holding and technical support for over 12,000 Customer Service Points (CSPs).
Services offered through the BC channel
Mission
Zero Mass Pvt Ltd is dedicated to provide Financial Inclusion services to the people of our country.
Vision
Zero Mass continues to provide Financial Inclusion with an aim of becoming the largest micro banking organisation in the world, empowering every underprivileged to understand and access banking services.
Further, continue to build lasting partnership with institutions, grassroots level entrepreneurs and our employees to serve better.
Zero Mass continues to provide Financial Inclusion with an aim of becoming the largest micro banking organisation in the world, empowering every underprivileged to understand and access banking services.
Further, continue to build lasting partnership with institutions, grassroots level entrepreneurs and our employees to serve better.
Our Journey
ZMPL was the first ever Business Correspondent in the history of Indian banking (year 2006-07)
History
In 2006, Reserve Bank of India issued Business Correspondent (BC) guidelines under its financial inclusion initiative. The government proposed BCs as a social initiative allowing them to earn certain percentage of the total funds disbursed to cover their operating costs. Anurag Gupta advocated for this with RBI and government for some years and founded the ZERO MASS Foundation (ZMF), to operate as Business Correspondent (BC) on the technology platform provided by A Little World (ALW).
On the 7th of November 2007, we created the first outlet for Zero Mass Foundation in Mizoram to work as an implementer of the Social Service Payment System.
Our Journey
ZMPL was the first ever Business Correspondent in the history of Indian banking (year 2006-07)
History
In 2006, Reserve Bank of India issued Business Correspondent (BC) guidelines under its financial inclusion initiative. The government proposed BCs as a social initiative allowing them to earn certain percentage of the total funds disbursed to cover their operating costs. Anurag Gupta advocated for this with RBI and government for some years and founded the ZERO MASS Foundation (ZMF), to operate as Business Correspondent (BC) on the technology platform provided by A Little World (ALW).
On the 7th of November 2007, we created the first outlet for Zero Mass Foundation in Mizoram to work as an implementer of the Social Service Payment System.
Founders
Anurag Gupta
Mr Anurag Gupta, an Architect by education is a leading figure in the electronic payments technology and innovative implementation.
As an architectural graduate, I realized that we need to think openly in three dimensions. It is more flexible and gives you a much better understanding of a challenge. Also, the company and its operations are an architectural model in itself and so the principles are applied in an organization context as well.
Core Team
Somraj Narayan
Chief People Officer (CPO) & Head - Legal
Shaik Mahaboob
Chief Officer - Risk and Compliance
Anindya Chakraborty
Head - Accounts & Finance
Sanjay Bansal
Head - Analytics & Revenue Assurance
Ashisa Misra
Head - Service Management
Vittal Das Pai
Head - Key Accounts Management
A Little World (ALW)
A Little World (ALW) develops and manages technology solutions used in operating micro-banks in rural and remote areas of India under Zero Mass. ALW offers a secure, low-cost technology-driven delivery platform for financial services through special mobile phones that store and help manage a vast amount of customer bank account data, authenticates account holders through photo and biometric identification and allows access to the bank accounts as the Point of Service terminals. The mobile phone is in essence a ‘bank in a box’ run by ZMF for the villagers in rural India.
The enrolments and transactions are authenticated by using a fingerprint scanner, which also serves as a printer for the receipt of transaction details. The operators/agents also have a smart-card-enabled mobile phone with them to type in the details of the transaction. GPRS technology is used to communicate between the mobile phone and the fingerprint scanner. At present, we have 12,000 outlets in the country with more than 500 trained operators running them.
The company has 15 + years of experience in handling large technology-driven projects for a host of PSU Banks including State Bank of India (SBI), Private Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)
with experience with various Bank CBS integrations, connectivity options, Disaster Recovery (DR) implementation, Cloud infrastructure and system integrations with partner SAP/enterprise systems.
AWL has undertaken several pioneering efforts on Banking and Payment Systems in the country, including India’s first mobile payment system (mChek), India’s first Automatic Fare Collection System (GO-Mumbai), India’s first Technology-Enabled Financial Inclusion (TeFI) system based on biometrics & mobiles, Aadhaar based interoperability and Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile/ RFID cards based small value prepaid payment solution.
ALW handled the FI technology development and implementation branded “SBI Tiny – ZERO” for SBI across the country from 2007 till 2016, which migrated into the SBI Kiosk system in March 2016. It also handles the NFC/RFID based small value prepaid payment solution branded “SmartChange” for SBI New Business Dept. with Mother Dairy & Safal outlets in Delhi NCR and Amul Preferred Outlets (APOs) in Gujarat. Total 1255 outlets and 2.70 lac cardholders base.
A Little World (ALW) develops and manages technology solutions used in operating micro-banks in rural and remote areas of India under Zero Mass. ALW offers a secure, low-cost technology-driven delivery platform for financial services through special mobile phones that store and help manage a vast amount of customer bank account data, authenticates account holders through photo and biometric identification and allows access to the bank accounts as the Point of Service terminals. The mobile phone is in essence a ‘bank in a box’ run by ZMF for the villagers in rural India.
The enrolments and transactions are authenticated by using a fingerprint scanner, which also serves as a printer for the receipt of transaction details. The operators/agents also have a smart-card-enabled mobile phone with them to type in the details of the transaction. GPRS technology is used to communicate between the mobile phone and the fingerprint scanner. At present, we have 12,000 outlets in the country with more than 500 trained operators running them.
The company has 15 + years of experience in handling large technology-driven projects for a host of PSU Banks including State Bank of India (SBI), Private Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)
with experience with various Bank CBS integrations, connectivity options, Disaster Recovery (DR) implementation, Cloud infrastructure and system integrations with partner SAP/enterprise systems.
AWL has undertaken several pioneering efforts on Banking and Payment Systems in the country, including India’s first mobile payment system (mChek), India’s first Automatic Fare Collection System (GO-Mumbai), India’s first Technology-Enabled Financial Inclusion (TeFI) system based on biometrics & mobiles, Aadhaar based interoperability and Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile/ RFID cards based small value prepaid payment solution.
ALW handled the FI technology development and implementation branded “SBI Tiny – ZERO” for SBI across the country from 2007 till 2016, which migrated into the SBI Kiosk system in March 2016. It also handles the NFC/RFID based small value prepaid payment solution branded “SmartChange” for SBI New Business Dept. with Mother Dairy & Safal outlets in Delhi NCR and Amul Preferred Outlets (APOs) in Gujarat. Total 1255 outlets and 2.70 lac cardholders base.
What is business correspondence?
Business Correspondents are retail agents engaged by banks for providing banking services at locations other than a bank branch/ATM, as per extant guidelines of RBI.
What does ZM do better than most other BC providers?
ZM has a far and wide reach across the country, thereby providing Financial Inclusion services to masses in several remote parts. ZM is regarded for its highly ethical business practices.
