Shape of distribution market in years to come

Expense Account, Mint

This year will go down as one in which a fog of confusion enveloped consumers and distributors of financial products. While mutual fund agents feel as if the regulations are trying to kill their business, insurance agents are protesting reform that is yet to be announced. Consumers are confused about what to pay, to whom and how much. I have been tracking this change fairly closely and have written frequently on it. Mails and comments on previous columns and off-line views tell me that there is much confusion out there on what the distribution market will look like once this second wave of financial sector reforms is over.

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Removing the moving cost for portability

Expense Account, Mint

I’m not sure it will work. I’m in Pondy (Puducherry) on holiday and almost out of cash. I have my ATM card but my bank does not have a machine here. And you can’t pay an auto guy 30 bucks with a credit card—at least not yet. I confess to never having used my ATM card on another bank’s machine—never had a need to and a basic distrust of machines that chew up cards has kept me faithful to my own bank’s ATM machines. But this is an emergency. I need cash. With a fair bit of reluctance, I stick the card into another bank’s ATM machine, punch in the password and watch the transaction get under way with a wrinkle of doubt. As the machine counts the currency notes with a whirr and spits them out, I let out a small cheer. For being liquid again. For technology that makes this possible. And for the regulator who made this happen, though there is now a limit of Rs10,000 a day with a maximum of five transactions a month in other bank ATMs.

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The art of saying no to an investment

Expense Account, Mint

As I saw the Osian’s Art Fund story unfold last week, I was reminded of the numerous times reporters had made art fund story pitches to me in the last four years. This was the time of the giant asset bubbles across the globe—real estate, stocks, oil and, of course, art. Everybody was gorging on the cheap cash still in the system. One of my reporters, who dared ask hard questions at the time of the Osian’s fund float, was told how art was only going to boom by the promoter of the fund, who also advised her to go and learn some art before she covered this area. Three years later, it does seem like she doesn’t need to learn more about art and that he needs to learn more about investing. Needless to say I spiked all rah-rah stories on art and only ran the do-not-invest stories.

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Needed: an upgrade in financial services

Expense Account, Mint

When his brother and wife couldn’t figure out which was the best home loan on offer even after 10 days of research, Adhil Shetty, then working on Wall Street, thought of it as a business opportunity. Shetty relocated to India in 2007 and now has Bankbazaar.com, an online marketplace for loans, up and running. The online service offers to find the best loan products and cut transaction costs by using technology and tie-ups with banks and home loan companies. Others in the same space of comparison shopping of financial products include Apnapaisa.com and Policybazaar.com, which offers to help you choose the best insurance policy.

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Mutual fund industry makeover: season 2

Expense Account, Mint

For equally good food, which cafe would you pick—one that has good parking and is on the ground floor or another that has difficult parking and is two flights up a dark stairway? I find myself choosing the first over the other most times. I also find my selection process sensitive to costs of access such as parking fees. I tend to avoid places that will charge more than the usual Rs10 as parking.

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