Spice Money: Industry Monitoring (01 to 02 January 2019)
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 2, 2019
- 6 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
Make payments without swiping and PIN! How secure are these wi-fi enabled contactless cards?
Publication- The Financial Express
Edition- Online
Date- 01 January, 2019
On the New Year eve, I went to the Green Park market in New Delhi to buy some sweets. At the time of payment, I handed over my SBI VISA credit card to the person at the cash counter of Evergreen Sweet Shop and was just trying to remember the PIN, which I had set a few days back on receiving the new card as the old card was stolen two weeks back. But to my dismay, as I was recollecting the PIN, the person at the counter handed me the receipt without even swiping or dipping the card (i.e. inserting the card in the point of sale (POS) machine)!
I got confused and asked the person how the payment was made without dipping and punching the PIN. He said, “Because it’s a wi-fi card.” As my confusion was not yet clear, another customer showed me the wi-fi symbol printed on the card and cautioned me that anyone having such a POS machine may catch the signal and take out money up to Rs 2,000.The card may be handy for elderly people, for whom remembering the PIN of their card may be difficult, but for others it may just create security issue. So, I called up the SBI customer care and contacted VISA, to know how secure these cards are.
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UPI transactions worth over ₹1 trillion conducted in December
Publication- Livemint
Edition- Online
Date- 01 January, 2019
In a record of sorts, 620.17 million UPI transactions worth ₹102,594.82 crore were conducted in December, as compared to 524.94 million transactions valued at ₹82,232.21 crore in November—an 18% increase in transaction volume, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed Tuesday. December was the first month when over 600 million UPI transactions were recorded. UPI transactions had crossed the 500 million-mark for the first time in November.
UPI is a payments system launched by the NPCI, the umbrella organization for all retail payments in India. It facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on a mobile platform, without requiring any detail of the beneficiary’s bank account. UPI transactions received a major stimulus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app on 30 December 2016. The transactions conducted through BHIM app in December have not been updated on the NPCI website.
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Paytm Payments Bank resumes KYC for bank, wallet customers
Publication- The Times of India
Edition- Online
Date- 01 January, 2019
Jan 1 () Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) has said it has resumed Know Your Customer (KYC) process as well as onboarding new customers after receiving a formal nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). PPBL in June last year was asked to stop adding new customers after an audit by the RBI that made some observations about the bank's KYC processes. In July last year, its then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Renu Satti resigned from her position and took on the mandate of heading Paytm's retail initiative. The bank had roped in veteran banker Satish Gupta as its managing director and CEO in October. "PPBL has received a formal nod from the RBI to start onboarding new customers while resuming KYC for the bank as well as wallet customers starting from December 31, 2018," PPBL said in its latest statement.
The statement added that potential customers would now be able to open their savings or current account with PPBL. Payments banks can accept deposits from individuals and small businesses up to Rs 1 lakh per account. PPBL aims to acquire 100 million additional customers by the end of 2019, the statement said. "PBBL is on a mission to facilitate the last-mile delivery of banking services to each and every Indian. It also envisions catalysing the digital adoption and acquainting more people with the touch-of-a-button experience," Gupta said. Paytm commenced its payments bank operations in 2017. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma holds the majority share in PPBL, with the rest being held by Alibaba-backed One97 Communications. However, the Chinese entity does not have a direct shareholding in the payments bank.
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Payments banks see second straight year of losses
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 02 January, 2019
Payments banks, launched to make the country more financially inclusive, seems to be giving the regulators and investors a cause for concern as they continue with their second straight year of losses with little signs of turning the corner. The consolidated balance sheets for the operational payments banks showed net losses of Rs 516.5 crore for the fiscal year 2018, almost double that of the fiscal year 2017 when they lost Rs 242.2 crore, according to RBI’s trends and progress report. “The losses of payments banks are attributed to high operating expenses as large capital expenditure had to be incurred in setting up initial infrastructure. It may take some time for payment banks to break even as they expand their customer base by offering their unique banking products,” RBI said in the report. The operating profits of these banks also remained negative with a loss of Rs 522.1 crore for fiscal 2018, up from Rs 240.7 crore a year before.
High operational costs due to infrastructure setup required by these banks to tap the underpenetrated markets in the country is the prime reason for their financial weakness, it said. Things are showing no signs of improvement with even the regular banks ramping up their technology initiatives. In the first half of this fiscal they were making losses and it may well continue for many quarters, the RBI said. While financial metrics remained weak, there was hope in other with the share deposits of these banks marginally rising from 5.7% to 9% during this period. The net interest income also improved from Rs 151.1 crore to Rs 30.7 crore and the total liabilities/assets rose to Rs 4,891.6 crore from Rs 1,193.9 crore. About 81% of the business the payments bank made was on account of inward and outward transactions through mobile and ewallets, according to the central bank.
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MSS Payments Achieves ISO 27001 Certification
Publication- Business Standard
Edition- Online
Date- 02 January, 2019
MSewa Software Solution (MSS) Payments, one of the emerging leaders in the Financial Technology Services Industry, has announced that it has achieved ISO IEC 20000-1:2011 | ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification for its key products and corporate office in Bangalore and Singapore. The accreditation confirms the usage of supreme standards for Information Security Management Module. This certification reaffirms the commitment to the use of best practices of information security and of its continuous enhancement of systems and processes that are accepted universally.
"We feel honoured to have obtained this certification. This certification will allow us to establish as the fastest growing Financial Technology Services Company which assures information security throughout the lifecycle of the project. This will position us in the market in such a way that it would open up new avenues and business streams for us," said Pankaj Kumar, CEO - MSS Payments. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher of international standards. Specifically, the ISO 27001 standard is a globally recognized information security management system (ISMS) standard. ISO 27001 specifies the requirements for a business to establish, implement, review, monitor, manage and maintain an effective information security management system.
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Lex Ray announces Blockchain Integration Initiative
Publication- Business World
Edition- Online
Date- 02 January, 2019
Mobilprise Inc., DBA “LexRay”, an industry leading operational management mobile platform, announced today a major blockchain initiative for its patented V5 Platform. LexRay's platform provides a decentralized and secure mobile operations solution that improves operational efficiencies, and helps manage mission critical facilities, field personnel and security systems from anywhere. Adding to the suite of operational solutions, which includes tools for dispatch, video management, and analytics, LexRay's blockchain initiative seeks to move its solution beyond similar services offered by many other companies with focused service offerings.
im Argiropoulos, president of LexRay, said: "The advent of blockchain technology allows LexRay to build more efficient, secure, enterprise business solutions. Integrating blockchain technology into the core LexRay Mobile Operations Platform will open new markets by further re-enforcing our goal to enhance Mobile Operations and capabilities." The LexRay Blockchain Initiative plans to build a decentralized marketplace utilizing Ethereum to connect a growing suite of enterprise decentralized applications to LexRay’s core platform. Specifically, LexRay plans to utilize blockchain technology by accessing the Ethereum network through a mobile operations client which is designed to interact with decentralized applications that run on the Ethereum network.
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