India's financial services still working in web 1.0 era, says Sachin Bansal

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal said that Indian financial services are still working in the "web 1.0" era and argued that the state is ripe for technology-driven disruption.

Bansal, In an interview to BloombergQuint, said that he is betting on building a mobile-first bank for India. Combining his edge over technology, Bansal aims to bring his consumer-tech thinking to financial services.

"We are tech-first and will be building a lot of technologies in-house and will be flexible, and will move fast. We will be mobile-first, and then there will be physical outlets, which will be a support to the mobile channel, rather than the other way round," Bansal said.

Ever since he departed from Flipkart, Bansal has been acquiring firms that provide financial services.

In January, Bansal resigned from the board of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd stating that an entity owned and controlled by him -- Navi Technologies -- has applied for a universal banking licence, through its microfinance arm, Chaitanya India Fin Credit.

Bansal has picked up a majority 94% stake for Rs 739 crore in the Bengaluru-based microfinance company Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services (CRIDS) in September last year and had taken over as the CEO of the company.

Chaitanya offers loans to low-income customers in rural areas on the joint-liability-group lending model, has made an application under the RBI’s On-Tap Banking License Guidelines, earlier this month. It operates via 40 branches in Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand.