Naureen Hyat Co-Founder & Business Head from Tez Financial Services while in conversation with Daily NewsPK elaborated on how they are focusing on financial inclusion and providing basic financial services to the masses.
1. What led you to create ‘Tez Financial’? When was it founded?
Over 150 Million people do not have access to financial services in Pakistan. Even more alarming, 200 Million people do not have access to credit. These are people with dire needs of survival; where minute fluctuations in cash flows could impair their ability to meet their day to day financial needs. Despite Pakistan having 43 banks, only 21% people have a formal bank account compared to 70% in South Asia. Conventional institutions do not cater to the masses because they are shackled by legacy systems and cumbersome paperwork and procedures deterring their interest in the unbanked segments.
On the contrary, the digital railroad offers an opportunity whereby Pakistan has one of the highest tele-density in the region, supplemented by high smartphone penetration and vast 3G/4G coverage.
We believe that the most sustainable mechanism to alleviating poverty is economic empowerment and equipping people with affordable and sustainable access to financial services. With this vision, the concept of Tez was born in 2017, which took an official standing in 2018.
2. What is the core service/solution you are providing? What are the pain points that you are targeting and what is the key differentiating factor from similar offerings?
Tez is the first fully digital financial institution in Pakistan, providing basic financial services to the unbanked and under-banked masses via a data-driven smartphone application. Tez aims to reduce the financial vulnerability of the masses through a complete slate of financial services offering nano-loans, innovative savings solutions, health and life insurance.
In the absence of suitable collateral and credit histories, institutions rely on time-consuming and human-intensive processes to assess risk, thereby deterring their interest in the nano-segments, tainting customer experience and raising turnaround-time. On the contrary, Tez, as the name implies in Urdu, provides Fast and Smart financial services fulfilling customer needs in a matter of minutes with a seamless customer journey, without any collateral or credit history requirements.
3. What are the parameters to measure client satisfaction?
We measure satisfaction by recurrence of customers on our platform and a growing base. With over half a million downloads in just two years of operations, we have served customers across 160+ cities in Pakistan which is a testament of our service quality. Furthermore, we lay great emphasis on agile customer support, and measuring satisfaction via NPS and customer surveys.
4. What is your future outlook and what do you stand to achieve by next year?
Tez envisions to be a full-stack neo-bank offering credit, insurance and saving options to customers within the upcoming year. Our focus lies on productive lending, health insurance and a suite of saving avenues including fractional gold and digital ROSCAs. We envision to serve 3 million users in the next 3 years, capitalizing on strategic partnerships with banks, telcos, payment providers, and various others.
