14th December 2018

Venue: The Park Hotel, Kolkata, West Bengal

• 8.45 AM - 9.30 AM

  Registration

• 9.30 AM - 10.30 AM

  Inaugural Session–Going Digital while retaining the Humane Touch

  

  Introduction and Welcome to the Conference – Mr. Ajit Kumar Maity, Chairperson, AMFI-WB.

  

  Key Note Address – Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD, Bandhan Bank.

  Inaugural Session	Mr. Hauzel Thangzamuan, CGM, RBI Regional Office, Kolkata
  	Mr. Subrata Mondal, CGM, NABARD
  	Mr. S.P. Singh, GM, SFMC, SIDBI, Lucknow
  	Mr. P. Satish, Executive Director, Sa-Dhan
  	Mr. Pawan Kedian, IAS, Joint Secretary, Finance, Govt. Of West Bengal, Nabanya. (yet to confirm)
  	Shri H.K. Dwivedi, IAS. Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Finance, Government of West Bengal, Nabanna (Yet to confirm)
  	Mr. A.K. Goel, Chairman, UCO Bank, Head Office (yet to confirmed)
  	Mr. Dipankar Aron, Additional Director General, Department of Revenue Intelligence, Govt. of India, Kolkata
  	Mr. Harsh Srivastava, CEO, MFIN
  Special Address – Evolution of Microfinance Industry looking at Past-present & Future	Mr. TamalBandyopadhyay, Senior Advisor, Jana Small Finance Bank and Consulting Editor, Business Standard
  Address from KPMG in India and release of Thought Leadership publication	Mrs. Gayathri Parthasarathy (Partner & National Head – Financial services) OR Mr. Narayanan Ramaswamy (Office Managing Partner – East, Kolkata)
  Vote of thanks	Dr. Kuldip Maity, MD, VFSL

• 10.30 AM - 11.00 AM

  Microfinance awards ceremony

  

  Awards Panelist – KPMG in India (Mr. Abhijeet Lakule – Associate Director)

  

  Awards Announcement – KPMG in India (Mr. Iyer Muralidharan – Associate Director)

• 11.00 AM - 11.15 AM

  Networking & Refreshments

• 11.15 AM - 12.15 PM

  Panel Discussion: The next wave of growth for Microfinance:

  • - The MFIs have typically been growing through increase in rural penetration and expansion to more geography. The MFI penetration is on a rise in North, East and Central regions in addition to Northeast India which have been underpenetrated and this trend is likely to continue
  • - Large MFIs which have converted to SFBs are tapping the market through wider product offerings in the liability as well as the asset sides. They are also extending their presence in urban areas for increase in overall ticket size and volume
  • - The MFIs have been lending aggressively and some of the MFIs have grown their disbursements at a CAGR of ~50% in the last 3 years
  • - With the underlying growth potential remaining strong, the MFIs have attracted investors’ interest leading to a spurt in M&A and PE activities. While the growth has been significant, there has been an increase in competitive intensity
  • - As MFIs seek to continue on the growth path, they are evaluating geographical expansion, product portfolio expansion opportunity to cross-sell other financial products such as mutual fund and insurance. Besides, they are also investing in technology and looking for strategic alliances with Fintech players.
  • - The success of these strategic initiatives will depend on regulatory environment, development of technology-based ecosystem and management of credit and operational risks

  Moderator	Mr. Sanjay Doshi, Partner, Head of Valuations. Deal Advisory, KPMG in India.
  Vote of thanks	Mr. S.P. Singh, GM, SFMC, SIDBI, Lucknow
  	Mr. Harsh Srivastava, CEO, MFIN
  	Mr. Kartick Biswas, Secretary, AMFI-WB & MD, Uttarayan Financial Services Pvt Ltd.
  	Mr. Ashish Agrawal, Director, J.R. Laddha Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.
  	Mr. S.K. Das, AGM, Canara Bank
  	Ms. Shaon Sen, Director In-Charge, Director of Self Help and Self Employment, Govt. of West Bengal
  	Mr. Kundan Lal, Regional Head, Union Bank of India
  	Mr. Pranab Rakshit, Vice Chairperson, AMFI-WB & MD, Sarala

• 12.15 PM - 1.15 PM

  Panel Discussion: Allied ecosystem for MFIs

  • - As the competitive intensity for MFIs increase, the pressure on NIM will increase considerably. So, the need for the MFIs to focus on non-interest income/ credit plus products becomes very important.
  • - The MFIs can help improve social impact through distribution of products such as solar lamps, LED bulbs and lights, sanitation products, purifiers, etc.
  • - The MFIs can additionally enhance penetration of insurance in General and Life insurance sector with simple, contextual and small ticket size products, based on the needs of the segment.
  • - The MFIs will need to strategize to build technology or buy technology solutions available in the market and leverage their presence in order to achieve social and financial goals by expanding the products or services for the target segment.
  • - For a sustainable growth of MFIs, an ecosystem needs to develop and all other stakeholders such as solar, LED light manufacturers, insurers, water purifier manufacturers, technology solution providers need to play a role in enhancing the lives of the financially and socially backward sections of the society. This can be done by offering them access to cheap energy solutions, hygiene related products, protection and medical coverage in addition to meeting credit needs for basic occupation and other personal needs.

  Moderator	Mrs. Avani Shah, Director, Management Consulting, KPMG in India
  Panelist	Mr. P. Satish, ED, Sa-Dhan
  	Mr. Sudeep Kumar, AGM, Bank of Baroda
  	Mr. Moddaser Hossain, CEO, Sonali Bank, India Operation, Bangladesh
  	Mr. Arun Raste, Head of Partnership, Bharat Banking, IDFC (or Fintech)
  	Mr. Debabrata Das, DGM, Vijaya Bank
  	Mr. Satyen Das, Vice President & Head – Group & Partnership Distribution, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd.
  	Gautam Ladha, Business Development, Financial Services (India),Greenlight Planet
  Vote of thanks	Mr. Bishwajit Das, Treasurer, AMFI-WB, and Secretary, BJS

• 1.15 PM - 2 PM

  Networking & Lunch

• 2.05 PM - 3.05 PM

  Panel Discussion: Regulatory and Risk management implications in the changing landscape:

  As MFIs embark on the journey to enter the next phase of growth, a regulatory framework needs to be put in place to ensure the following:
  • - Widening of the MFI space across lending ecosystem – the segments currently targeted by banks such as lending to small and medium enterprises, loan against property (LAP), personal loans etc.
  • - The regulator may review the cap for MFI loans besides the need for additional SROs, employee associations etc.
  • - A balanced approach can be adopted to help fuel the MFI growth through product expansion. Of course, at the same time, we need to ensure that the borrowers are not overleveraged.
  • - Potential introduction of borrower / household level monitoring of the debt burden especially for smaller ticket loans.
  • - Over leveraging of this borrower segment through multiple credit facilities in a household and absence of a common bureau could have an adverse impact especially in light of external shocks of the system including and not limited to the likes of demonetization, rumors, political stability etc.
  The MFIs need to put in place a risk framework for the following reasons:
  • - The entry of SFBs and Banks in this borrower segment will impact A. Pricing; B. Ticket sizes; C. Product features; and D. Repayment behavior; and thereby impact the sustainability of the MFIs that would have to compete with the SFBs, Larger NBFCs and Banks.
  • - Impact of changes in the collection model – from group meeting and collections to individual collection model. This may have an impact on the repayment behaviors and collection efficiency.
  • - Need to evaluate the overall indebtedness of the borrower and household at the time of underwriting would be critical going forward given the exposure of this segment to multiple lending forms. This would be a significant change in the operations (including manpower costs) of the MFI which primarily relied on income declaration and residence proofs of the borrowers.
  • - MFIs may need to introduce additional cross-sell products including top ups, demand loans, secured loans to compete with the array of products being offered by the SFBs and Banks to this borrower segment.
  • - The MFIs need to develop a framework for risk selection and monitoring as they implement system-wide changes for entry into newer products, models and underwriting processes.

  Moderator	Tamal Bandyopadhyay
  Panelist	Mr. Prateek Tandon - Head Of Sales - India And MEA,Equifax
  	Mr. R. K. Khemu, Regional Manager, P&GS, LICI, Zonal Office
  	Mr. N.B. Venkatachalam, Regional Manager, Syndicate Bank
  	Mr. Anjan Dasgupta, MD, ASAI.
  	Mr. Ashok Kumar Sarma, GM, Financial Inclusion, UCO Bank Head Office
  	Mr. Kamalesh Sethi, Zonal Head, Punjab and Sind Bank
  	Ms. Priti Agrawal, Director, CARE Ratings
  Vote of Thanks	Mr. Alok Biswas, MD Janakalyan Consultancy Pvt. Ltd & Board member, AMFI-WB.

• 3.10 PM - 4.05 PM

  Panel Discussion: Collaboration with Fintech firms

  • - Scalability of the model has been driven by a branch-led expansion which is an expensive strategy especially when the threat of disruption to the model has increased.
  • - Competition from Fintech players operating in the same space of small ticket loans is increasingly felt in the urban areas and rural adoption is not very far away.
  • - While implementation of core banking systems and loan management systems are underway at many MFIs, there is a need to digitize across the value chain focusing on customer onboarding, underwriting, collections and governance mechanisms.
  • - The MFIs have a strong local presence and connect with groups or individuals at the time of sourcing and collections, with both field-based and branch-based collections models prevalent in the market.
  • - Technology can be incorporated while retaining the human touch which is characteristic of MFIs.
  • - Collaborations with Fintech firms across distribution, collection, cross sell, monitoring and customer education is imperative.
  • - The MFIs can leverage digital footprint for alternate credit scoring model-based partnerships with value added services players.
  • - The focus of technology strategy needs to be increasing operating efficiency, reduction of cost, arranging wide cross-sell, and data analytics with clear goals.
  • - Technology will be the key to delivering a profitable and scalable model as increase in competition and rise in borrowing costs will add pressure to the margins going forward.

  Moderator	Mr. Manoj Nambiar, MD, Arohan MFI
  Panelist	Sri Debashish Sen, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, IT & E Department & Chairman cum Managing Director, West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO), Govt. of West Bengal
  	Dr. Kuldip Maity, MD, VFSL
  	Mr. Vivek Tiwari, MD, Satya Microfinance
  	Mr. Sabyasachi Chanda, Force Ten Technologies
  	Mr. Santosh Kumar, CEO & Founder, WhileOfOne Innovation Labs.
  	Mr. Viraf Sirvala, Vice President Sales, Nelito Systems Ltd.
  	Mr. Dev Verma, Chief Operating Officer, Satin Credit Care Ltd.
  Vote of Thanks	Mr. Ganesh Chandra Modak, MD, Grameen Shakti MFI

• 4.10 PM - 4.20 PM

  Valedictory Session

  

  Mr. Ajit Kumar Maity, Chairperson, AMFI-WB

• 4.20 PM onwards

  Networking / High Tea / Coffee & Snacks