Global

Tide and Transcorp Launch India's-First Recycled PVC RuPay Card

The Week

"Tide, the UK's leading SME-focused business financial platform in partnership with Transcorp International Limited, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulated Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) license holder, today announced the launch of India's first recycled (rPVC[1]) Rupay card, along with MCT Cards & Technology Pvt. Ltd. and NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India)."

Tags: India

Global

India to Withdraw 2,000-Rupee Notes From Circulation

Reuters

"India will start withdrawing its highest value currency notes from circulation, the central bank said on Friday, in a move that economists said could boost bank deposits at a time of high credit growth."

Tags: India

Global

RuPay Introduces CVV-Less Card Payments: How it Works

NewsBytes

"Checking the CVV (card verification value) before making any payment is one of the hassles associated with credit or debit cards. India's homegrown card network Rupay has a solution for this: CVV-less payments.This would mean cardholders can make payments without reaching into their wallets. Let's see how RuPay's CVV-less payment works. Rupay's CVV-less payment experience is available to credit, debit, and prepaid cardholders. The feature is only available to those who have tokenized their cards on the merchant application or webpage."

Tags: India

Companies Global

India Antitrust Body Wants Inquiry Into Google In-App Payments Fees

Reuters

"India's antitrust body said an inquiry is needed into allegations that service fee charged for in-app payments by Google breach a competition watchdog directive, a regulatory order seen by Reuters showed on Friday."

Tags: India

Global

BharatPe Launches PAYBACK India in a New Avatar: Rebrands it as ‘Zillion’

CXOToday.com

"BharatPe Group, one of India’s leading names in the fintech industry, today announced that it will be rebranding PAYBACK India, the country’s largest multi-brand loyalty program to Zillion. This new brand identity is in line with the company’s vision to make Zillion ubiquitous to loyalty and rewards across the country. The new brand identity aims to target customers across age groups and add a new dimension to their overall shopping experience, across categories and brands."

Tags: India

Global

UPI Transactions Decline in Volume & Value Terms in April

The Hindu Businessline

"Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions declined in volume as well as value terms in April 2023 after peaking in the previous month. Transaction volumes declined 7.96 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m) in April 2023 to 796.29 crore against 865.16 crore in March 2023, per the National Payments Corporation of India’s “UPI Monthly Product Statistics”."

Tags: India

Global

Proposed Change to Aadhaar Authentication Rule Raises Data Privacy Issues

Biometric Update

"A move by the government of India to amend the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (GG) Rules, 2020, is attracting widespread criticism as experts say the plan would violate the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling which prevents private entities from performing Aadhaar authentication. This development comes as the government is reporting a jump in figures for digital ID authentication transactions for the month of March, with Aadhaar-powered KYC increasing by 16 percent."

Tags: India

Global

PPRO Signs Strategic Partnership With NPCI International, Unlocking Simplified Access to India’s UPI Payment System for Cross-Border Transactions

Business Wire

"PPRO, the leading digital payments infrastructure provider, has signed a strategic agreement with NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) to offer global partners access to Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s fastest-growing, real-time payment system, for cross-border transactions. Today’s agreement, supported by a new framework co-developed with NIPL, paves the way for the first merchants to go live in the coming months."

Tags: India

Global

India’s Largest Retailer Accepts Digital Rupee CBDC

Medium

"India’s largest retailer Reliance Retail is accepting the Reserve Bank of India’s Digital Rupee (e₹-R) Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Customers can pay with Digital Rupees at some Reliance Retail stores, TechCrunch reports. Shoppers will use a quick read (QR) code they scan with their phone to pay with digital rupees."

Tags: India

Global

Indian Cenbank Proposes Expanding UPI Digital Payments System to Allow Credit

Reuters

"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is proposing expanding the reach of the popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI) digital payments system by allowing credit to be offered via pre-approved bank lines."

Tags: India

Global

Will UPI Payments Now Attract Charges? Decoding NPCI’s Interchange Fee on UPI Transactions Via Prepaid Payment Instruments

Business Insider

"The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced an interchange fee of up to 1.1% on UPI transactions done via prepaid payment instruments (PPI) from April 1.The charge will be applicable on payments of over ₹2,000, but it has caused confusion amongst users as to who will be charged for these transactions and which payment modes will be chargeable."

Tags: India

Global

New Fees on UPI Payments: Why Paytm, GPay, PhonePe and Other Users Need Not Worry

The Times of India

"National Payments Corporation of India has recently set the interchange rate at 1.1% for merchant transactions initiated using a prepaid payment instrument such as a Mobile Wallet on the Unified Payments Interface network.  The change will take effect April 1."

Tags: India

Global

India's Paytm Wins Regulator Extension for Payment Aggregator Licence Application

Reuters

"Indian financial technology company Paytm Payments Services Ltd has received an extension from the country's banking regulator to apply for a payment aggregator licence and aims to reapply in about 15 days, the company said on Sunday. Paytm Payments Services, in the meantime, can continue with the online payment aggregation business for its existing partners, without taking on any new merchants, the company said in a notification to stock exchanges on Sunday."

Tags: India

Global

Crunchfish Partners with IDFC FIRST Bank to Demostrate Offline Retail Payments in RBI's Pilot

Marketscreener

"IDFC FIRST Bank is set to be a part of RBI's pilot project to enable offline payments. This project will give access to digital payments even when there is no network. This unique digital payment solution was designed by Crunchfish for merchants and customers under the RBI's Regulatory Sandbox Program."

Tags: India

Global

77% of Indian Businesses Expect to Increase Their Travel Budget in 2023 Compared to 2022: American Express Survey Report

American Express

"With business travel across domestic and international markets showing a rebound post pandemic, majority of Indian businesses (67%) expect a rise in business travel in 2023 and 77% of businesses are expecting to increase their travel budget in 2023 as compared to 2022. These findings were revealed in the business travel and entertainment (T&E)[1] survey report titled ‘Revival of business travel: An India perspective’ commissioned by American Express, India with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr)."

Tags: India

Global

India and UAE to Collaborate on Developing Digital Currencies

Coindesk

"India and the United Arab Emirates will jointly conduct pilot programs on central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, according to an announcement on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding in Abu Dhabi to explore the interoperability between the CBDCs of the two countries."

Tags: India UAE

Global

Aadhaar, AEPS, Fraud, UIDAI India’s ID Authority Cites New ‘Security Mechanism’ When Asked About Aadhaar-Based Payment Frauds

MediaNama

"The newly introduced AI-based fingerprint authentication mechanism for securing Aadhaar-based transactions by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a measure to prevent cloning of Aadhaar-linked fingerprints, the UIDAI said on March 13, 2023, in a Right to Information (RTI) response to MediaNama. The RTI, filed on February 18, was primarily about financial crimes involving Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AePS) and the UIDAI provided no answers to queries specifically related to these much-discussed recurring frauds."

Tags: India

Global

India Using SWIFT Global Payment System to Settle Russia Dollar Trade

Reuters

"Indian companies are using the SWIFT global payment system to settle dollar payments with Russia, a top trade official said on Wednesday, even though many Russian banks are blocked from the network due to Western sanctions. The West blocked access to SWIFT for several Russian banks, including Sberbank and VTB, soon after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year to target Russian trade, making it harder for Russian companies to do business. SWIFT underpins financial transactions globally."

Tags: India Russia

Global Risk

Bill Gates Visits MOSIP, Gets the T-shirt, Discusses Financial Inclusion Via the Platform

Biometric Update

"Bill Gates has visited MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform) in its hometown Bangalore for presentations on the project’s progress and plans, MOSIP has shared in a LinkedIn post. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been a backer of the free-to-use ID platform that avoids vendor lock-in."

Tags: India

Global

Why Concentration Risk isn’t Good in the UPI Ecosystem

The Hindu Businessline

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has changed the face of payments in the country, and has become the epitome of digital payments worldwide. It has influenced Fednow, an instant payments system in US, and P27, a real-time and cross-border payments system in the Nordics. While the real-time payment transfer system was an instant hit, it created an entirely different challenge of market concentration for the government in India – the interface is dominated by PhonePe and Google’s GPay. PhonePe has nearly 50 per cent market share with recent funding and valuation as one of the largest fintechs in the country, followed by Google Pay with over 34 per cent, and Paytm has 10 per cent share, and these transactions’ value could reach 10 trillion rupees by 2026

Tags: India

Global

Worldline Launches Buland Bharat Digital Payments Suite for a Stronger and Inclusive India

Worldline

Worldline announced the launch of its Buland Bharat digital payments suite, which is designed specially keeping in mind the needs and wants of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. The Buland Bharat digital payments suite is in line with the Digital India initiative by the government of India. It will go a long way in extending a secure and seamless digital payment ecosystem to small and medium businesses (SMBs) from every nook and corner of the country.

Tags: India

Companies Global

PhonePe Raises $350 mln, Becomes India's Most Valuable Payments Firm

Reuters

Walmart-backed PhonePe said on Thursday it raised $350 million from private equity firm General Atlantic at a $12 billion valuation, making it India's most valuable payments firm and giving it funds to expand into the lucrative lending space. A second tranche of investments from marquee global and Indian investors is expected to close next month, a PhonePe spokesperson said, declining to give further details.

Tags: India PhonePe Walmart

Companies Global

India May Give Visa and Mastercard Access to Its Payments Market

CTM File

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is reportedly drawing up plans to link credit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the country's popular online payments protocol. According to news portal The Morning Context, two industry executives have said that the central bank will decide before April. A decision in favour of the two US companies would mark a distinct change in; as Bloomberg comments: “India’s dealings with American card networks has been frosty.

Tags: India Mastercard Visa

Global

Visa and Mastercard’s UPI Ambitions Could Shake Up India’s Payments Market

Insider Intelligence

The Reserve Bank of India is reportedly drawing up plans to link credit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), industry executives aware of the matter told The Morning Context. The central bank will make a decision before April, two of the executives said.

Tags: India

Global

Indians Living in Ten Countries Can Now Make Payments Through UPI

Quartz

Sending money back home or making merchant payments has now become hassle-free for a whole lot of Indians living abroad. India’s National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended access to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to non-resident Indians, a press release said yesterday (Jan. 10). The homegrown digital payments facility will be available to accounts using international mobile phone numbers from 10 select countries.

Tags: India

Global

Hitachi Payment Services Receives RBI’s In-Principle Approval for Payment Aggregator Licence

Hitachi-Payments

"Hitachi Payment Services, India’s foremost end-to-end payment solutions provider, has announced that it has received the in-principle authorisation from Reserve Bank of India to act as a payment aggregator. Payment Aggregators (PAs) are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for completion of their payment obligations. PAs facilitate merchants to connect with acquirers."

Tags: India

Global

ToneTag’s POD 2.0 All Set To Disrupt The Digital Payments Space In India

CXOToday.com

“ToneTag, India’s largest voice-based commerce and payments solution provider aims to deploy its ground-breaking technology to resolve digital payment issues faced by micro and small businesses across the country. Through strategic partnerships with major global fintech players, the company is taking steps towards achieving this goal and has already reached and deployed this solution in over 100,000 small businesses and stores across India working with partners like Google, Amazon, ICICI Bank, NSDL and few others.”

Tags: India

Global

Cashfree Payments Now Offers India’s Widest ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ Suite

PR Newswire

“Leading payments and API banking solutions company, Cashfree Payments is now offering India’s widest ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ (BNPL) suite. Cashfree Payments’ BNPL suite will enable online businesses to provide customers with over 30 flexible financing options during checkout. The company has launched its BNPL suite in time for the upcoming holiday season to help online businesses offer their customers easy and instant access to credit, thereby increasing sales.”

Tags: India

Global

‘Cryptocurrency has Huge Inherent Risks for Our Macroeconomic, Financial Stability’, Says Shaktikanta Das

The New Indian Express

“Expressing concerns about cryptocurrencies, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said these virtual assets could cause the next financial crisis and should be prohibited. “Our view is it should be prohibited because if it is allowed to grow… the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies,” said the Governor speaking at an event held in Mumbai. Highlighting the volatility and uncertainty in cryptocurrencies, he said the value of virtual currencies has come down to $140 billion and $40 billion was wiped out.”

Tags: India

Global

RBI Asks Cashfree, Razorpay and Stripe To Pause Merchant On-Boarding: Report

Moneylife News & Views

“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered Cashfree, Razorpay and Stripe to pause merchant on-boarding until the central bank issues them the payment aggregator (PA) licence it has tentatively approved for them, says a report from Entrackr. Last month, RBI asked Paytm Payments Services (Paytm) Ltd to re-submit the application to operate as a PA and not to on-board new online merchants until approvals remain pending.”

Tags: India