Fintech Apps Are Becoming the New Piggy Bank for Indian Teens

Satya Siba Nayak, 15, makes use of a debit card to pay for YouTube Premium and Netflix, to obtain apps from Google Play, and to pay for issues when he is out with mates. Signing up for an app referred to as FamPay enabled Nayak to have his personal card for making offline and on-line funds.

“My dad doesn’t live with us as he works in Karnataka and my mom wasn’t used to Google Pay and stuff, so I was researching about a solution to make cashless transactions,” the category 10 pupil instructed Gadgets 360.

He stated that asking for one-time passwords (OTPs) earlier was fairly an eyebrow raiser for his dad and mom, however together with his devoted account on FamPay, he would not need to trouble them anymore.

Young Indians like Nayak say that money allowances from their dad and mom are neither handy nor all the time possible. For many dad and mom, pay as you go wallets had been an excellent possibility to offer their youngsters extra freedom, whereas permitting them to set limits too. Now, a brand new wave of fintech platforms are constructing out full-fledged debit programmes for youngsters, and seeing transactions price crores every month. But alongside the rise within the quantity and worth of transactions going down by way of these platforms, the expansion of apps being an final monetary supply for youths can be elevating considerations.

The final buyer

Before going for FamPay, Nayak used to make transactions utilizing the money he was getting from his dad and mom within the type of pocket cash. He additionally usually used debit playing cards from his dad and mom for putting on-line orders. But the benefit of getting his personal card has elevated Nayak’s spending (on-line and offline) to Rs. 2,500 a month.

FamPay is simply one of many well-liked new-age banking apps (generally generally known as neobanks) in India which can be meant for youths and teenagers. Other well-liked apps within the class embrace Junio, launched in May this yr by former Paytm executives, and Walrus, which was launched in 2019.

Junio permits dad and mom to load cash to their youngsters’ pay as you go card utilizing its cell app
Photo Credit: Junio

Sourojyoti Barman is one other one of many energetic customers of FamPay. Barman (17) signed up on the app in January with the only function of getting his personal card for making transactions as a substitute of counting on the options opted by his dad and mom.

Just like Nayak, Barman is spending about Rs. 2,500 on a month-to-month foundation by way of FamPay. He, nevertheless, observed that his total spendings declined from Rs. 3,000 a month that he had previous to getting the FamPay card as a result of he receives restricted cash on this account, not like the limitless entry he used to get from the Google Pay account of his father.

New-age platforms vs conventional banks

In the primary quarter of 2021, FamPay reached 13,50,142 registered customers and 38,44,609 transactions, the corporate stated. Junio, then again, stated it dealt with 6,50,000 transactions price Rs. 30 crores since launch by way of a person base of over 2,50,000 customers. Junio additionally stated that it processed 2,00,000 transactions price Rs. 10 crores simply in October.

As conventional banks do not enable teenagers to have their standalone financial institution accounts sans a father or mother or guardian, platforms together with FamPay and Junio attempt to fill in that hole. As such, you do not want your dad and mom’ consent to create an account, nor do they should have their very own account with these apps, nor are paperwork resembling beginning certificates requested for.

All you must do is to obtain the app on a tool, confirm your cellphone quantity, and register by submitting private data, resembling their full title and full deal with. Once the registration type is crammed on the devoted app, the platforms have a know-your-customer (KYC) requirement that the dad and mom want to finish by importing a authorities issued ID card.

The apps additionally cost a price to enroll. FamPay costs a one-time price of Rs. 299 for its common card, or Rs. 599 for the premium card. The essential distinction is rewards and tie-ups like Zomato Pro, and personalisation of the cardboard.

FamPay gives two distinct pay as you go card choices to youngsters
Photo Credit: FamPay

Junio, then again, has a single Rs. 99 signup price. The firm provides that in return of the signup price, customers get a scratch card, which has cashback as much as Rs.1,000.

These apps additionally give dad and mom the flexibility to keep watch over the spendings of their youngsters by way of devoted analytics and dashboards. At the identical time, dad and mom can cease any transactions from their finish or obtain notifications for each new fee their youngsters make by way of the app.

Although apps together with FamPay and Junio are designed to be a platform for youngsters, they do not wish to stay an answer solely till their prospects develop into adults. The goal of those new gamers is to emerge because the one-stop banking answer for these teenagers as soon as they full their adolescence part.

“If we open a bank account, if we are happy with it, we don’t go and change,” stated Shankar Nath, Co-Founder of Junio. “So, we want to become that and catching children at the age of 12–13 and making a relationship with them through our app is what we are looking after.”

Key variations between conventional banks and fintech apps for youths

Concerns over focusing on minors

David Monahan, Campaign Manager for Boston, Massachusetts-based kids-focussed watchdog group Fairplay, famous that pay as you go playing cards focusing on youngsters raised essential considerations in regards to the delicate knowledge that firms had been compiling about youngsters’ spending habits and whom they had been sharing it.

When requested about knowledge sharing, which can be instructed within the privacy policy listed on the corporate’s web site, Junio stated that it didn’t share person knowledge with any third events.

FamPay, then again, stated that it takes person consent for knowledge sharing.

“As part of our co-branding arrangement with our banking partner and other allied services, we are required to share KYC and other data to enable the bank and ancillary service providers to authenticate users in order for them to commence transactions on our platform. We have processes in place to ensure consent is obtained for such data sharing once the user becomes a part of our ecosystem only,” the corporate stated.

Monahan additionally acknowledged that beneath the guise of selling monetary literacy, these platforms had been truly designed to get even youthful youngsters within the behavior of creating purchases with out regard to whether or not they might afford or want issues.

“They’re also building brand loyalty for certain banks and brands when children are young and impressionable,” he added.

Kazim Rizvi, Founding Director of public-policy think-tank The Dialogue, agrees with the considerations raised by Monahan and identified that these teen platforms had been additionally accumulating biometric knowledge of minors that required the next diploma of safety.

“These apps aim at sub-18-year-olds and their parents. This raises questions on valid consent, to the usage of services and the financial system broadly. It goes without saying that such an endeavour inevitably collects swathes of data,” he stated.

Some market consultants additionally consider that regulatory management must be in place as minors are thought of because the target market by these platforms, however the Reserve Bank of India would not have any particular norms for these younger prospects.

However, Raghav Aggarwal, a Principal Consultant who analyses fintech technique and offers engagements at PwC, in his private capability, instructed Gadgets 360 that regulating these platforms and recognising them as a person financial institution would contain a variety of capital necessities.

“As soon as you recognise an institution as an individual bank there are a lot more compliances, there are a lot more capital requirements which kind of come into the picture, which would block a lot of capital or would require expensive capital from these neobanks, and instead of channeling into let’s say the innovation, technology, customer acquisition, they would have to park that money in form of in form of compliances,” he stated.

Aiming to develop into teenagers’ financial institution for all times

For Fintech apps, the purpose is not simply to play an element within the lives of children, however to develop into part of their persevering with lives.

“That is why we call ourselves FamPay and not just a teenage payments app,” stated Kush Taneja, Co-Founder of FamPay. “We want to stay with them, we want to include them in the entire financial ecosystem, and we want to grow with them.”

Ankit Gera, Co-Founder of Junio, instructed Gadgets 360 that one of many ongoing developments was to offer credit score on UPI by way of the app.

“Because kirana stores in your neighbourhood may not have a swipe machine. So, we are building a feature where you can scan and pay. We are about to give credits on that payment mode because those are like small payments of 100 rupees,” he stated.

Junio can be planning to finally provide faculty, schooling, and private loans that might be given to customers once they attain the age of 18. In the short-run, the corporate is in talks with fast-moving shopper items (FMCG) manufacturers to run varied gives on its platform.

What is attracting youngsters?

Nath of Junio instructed Gadgets 360 that he and his companion Gera took Greenlight (a popular app in the US) as a reference mannequin for his or her app.

“Children nowadays are the CTO of the household, almost because they’re, in many cases, far more savvy than their parents digitally,” stated Nath, who previously labored as Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President at Paytm. “So our entire approach was essentially motivated by the fact that if a child is transacting digitally, he or she should be having his own payment instruments, under supervision, of course.”

While Google Pay and PhonePe compete with large cashbacks and rewards to get individuals to enroll, the crew at FamPay stated that youngsters aren’t in search of the identical sort of gives.

“Kids don’t come to our platform for rewards,” stated FamPay’s Taneja. “When they pick something, they don’t pick because of the reward, they pick because they feel that emotional connection, the brand value, the value prop and that aesthetic are much more higher than just rewards.”

FamPay additionally gives the flexibility to let teenage customers talk with buyer brokers on its platform utilizing GIFs, memes, even voice notes. There are doodles on FamPay’s FamCard Me to offer a personalised really feel to younger prospects.

FamCard Me lets youngsters have doodles on their pay as you go playing cards to get a personalised really feel
Photo Credit: FamPay

“What happens is once teens get a card, they want to flash it out,” defined Taneja. “They want to showcase it to their friends, they want to put it on Instagram, and they want to get that feeling.”

FamPay is in plans to deliver fantasy characters on its playing cards to bolster personalisation. Taneja indicated the fantasy characters may very well be from Disney and will come at the price of FamCoins. The prospects we talked to are extra curious about making funds with out OTPs than customising their playing cards, although.

“You could really get creative with FamCard Me and have seen great designs, but for the Rs. 600, I don’t think I would take that,” stated Nayak. “If they would give some discount I may reconsider.”