Visa for a cause with Micro Pension Foundation

MUMBAI, INDIA: Visa has announced a partnership with Micro Pension Foundation, an Indian non-profit organization. The partnership will establish a Micro Pension Visa Financial Inclusion Lab as an incubator of innovative payment solutions, targeting 140 million low income, unbanked, informal sector individuals, providing them with access to affordable, micro-savings and pension products from regulated financial institutions.

Uttam Nayak, Group Country Manager - India and South Asia, Visa, said "With a current elderly population of over 100 million that is set to nearly double within the next decade, it is imperative for India to establish an inclusive institutional architecture and encourage the workforce to set aside a part of their present incomes for their old age and other social security needs. We are delighted to partner with Micro Pension® Foundation and through the Lab we propose to create solutions that inculcate and channelize savings. The pilot truckers programme is one such example. The truck drivers and cleaners due to their nature of employment have intermittent incomes, and a concerted effort to educate them on the benefits of saving regularly for old age has been undertaken through the Lab's financial literacy centre set up at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in Delhi. On a daily basis, 20 drivers get educated on the programme and we look forward to tracking the progress of enrolments."

Gautam Bhardwaj, Managing Director of IIMPS and co-founder of the non-profit Micro Pension Foundation, said "This will directly impact both voluntary savings discipline and the amount of pension that subscribers get in their old age. Secure and well regulated technology-based, cashless payment solutions will therefore be a key ingredient for India's success with its pension reform programme. This joint research and development initiative with Visa will actively focus on this area."

Stephen Kehoe, Head of Global Financial Inclusion, Visa said, "Everyone has the right to have access to safe and secure financial services - and the technology exists today to make this a reality."

The Lab has developed and launched a range of initiatives to foster financial inclusion namely - Micro-payments for migrant workers; Benefits for the financially excluded; Financial and retirement literacy centres and 

Micro-Pension for domestic help. Over 25 million poor in India are employed as domestic help (drivers, maids, cooks, gardeners, guards) in middle and upper-middle income households in India's metros and tier-1 cities. The Lab says it is developing an innovative e-commerce model to encourage and enable such households to educate and enrol their domestic help for an integrated social security program.