BlocPal International and mBnk Launch India’s First Phygital Financial Services Marketplace
VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BlocPal International Inc., a digital transaction platform that makes financial services more affordable and accessible, has officially launched a unique physical and digital (“phygital”) financial services marketplace with its Indian subsidiary mBnk.
BlocPal believes that the launch of this new phygital financial services marketplace is a tremendous opportunity to offer digital financial services with physical on-the-ground retailers. This new marketplace will increase mBnks’ brick and mortar retailer network to help drive financial inclusion in India’s communities. With a strong start of over 50,000 retailers, this solution provides a range of financial solutions, including the ability to deposit and withdraw funds, execute domestic money transfers, purchase prepaid credit cards, micro-loans, savings plans and mobile and wallet recharges. This marketplace will enable a one-stop solution for consumers to access, through each retailer, a range of solutions, with the opportunity to expand our product offering in the future.
“Launching this new phygital marketplace with mBnk is a great stepping stone in demonstrating what BlocPal is capable of,” says Vaibhav Sinha, CTO of BlocPal. “We believe mBnk and its India operations demonstrate the strength of the ability of our technology and business model to be scalable, flexible and adapt in new markets.”
BlocPal and mBnk are merging the world of powerful financial technology with local India market expertise from Shashank Joshi, Founder and CEO of mBnk. BlocPal believes that bringing this new marketplace application of digital financial solutions to physical brick and mortar stores will provide accessible digital financial solutions through a broad retailer network. There are approximately 1.4 billion people in India, 900 million of which live in rural or semi-urban areas, with 840 million either unbanked or underbanked. Access to banking services in India continues to be a challenge, with the supply of only 22 ATMs per 100,000 adults1.
“There is quite a big gap between need versus fulfillment of financial services in India. While the current pandemic brought social and economic life to a halt, mBnk aims to give businesses and consumers a fresh start,” says Shashank Joshi, Founder and CEO, mBnk. “This innovative marketplace offers Indian retailers and consumers a wide variety of financial services at affordable price points, conveniently accessible at their local neighbourhood store. We remain committed to learning from and serving every single retailer and consumer in India and enable them to be part of India’s growing economy.”
“We believe that India is one of the biggest market opportunities for financial services globally,” stated Nick Mellios, CEO of BlocPal. “BlocPal is empowering consumers and merchants to further participate in the digital economy and empower the underbanked population in India.”
This marketplace launch is one of many recent developments that BlocPal has made to help drive the global digital economy. mBnk’s first-of-its-kind marketplace application builds upon BlocPal’s unique business model and ultimately creates a benchmark for global financial inclusion.
For more information, visit www.blocpal.com
About BlocPal
BlocPal’s vision is to provide the world a simple, fast, and secure digital transaction platform that allows anyone to transact in their currency or asset of choice. An emerging leader in the digital economy, BlocPal empowers consumers, merchants, and enterprise customers to actively participate in an evolving digital economy, which includes both fiat and as regulations permit cryptocurrencies. With its suite of applications, BlocPal’s ecosystem supports a range of solutions via integrated APIs, point-of-sale, e-commerce, white-label enterprise solutions, loyalty rewards, financial network integrations and robust consumer digital wallets.
About mBnk Phygital Financial Marketplace
mBnk is a digital platform enabling a full suite of Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) solutions for the under-served people in India. mBnk offers retailers and consumers a one-stop solution for BFSI services; including ATM, domestic fund transfer, credit/debit cards, mobile and wallet recharges, micro-loans, insurance and investment savings plans.
There is a large rural population in India who have never seen financial services made available to them. It is imperative to bring the under-served population within the ambit of the formal financial system in India, assisting in the economic development of people and their communities.
1ATMs per 100,000 adults by country, around the world. TheGlobalEconomy.com. (n.d.). https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/ATM_machines/.
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