Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 05 April 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Apr 10, 2019
- 5 min read
Spice Money
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Industry News
New customer-protection measures on cards for electronic payments
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 05 April, 2019
The central bank would soon come up with a new set of customer-protection measures aimed at improving user confidence in electronic payment channels, helping achieve the federal objective of reducing the use of cash in business transactions. The proposed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations include having a common timeframe for all authorised electronic payment systems to respond to customer complaints and setting up a compensation framework for failed transactions. “To have prompt and efficient customer service in all the electronic payment systems, it is necessary to harmonise the turnaround time (TAT) on the resolution of customer complaints and chargebacks, and to have a compensation framework in place for the benefit of customers,” RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday in his speech after the monetary policy review.
“The Reserve Bank proposes to put in place a framework on TAT for resolution of customer complaints and compensation framework across all authorised payment systems by the end of June 2019.” The governor said that despite the central bank prescribing appropriate redressal mechanisms for customer grievances and issuing guidelines to various payments system operators on paying users in case of failed transactions, the lack of a common industry-wide mandate is resulting in non-uniformity in complaint resolution. “Currently various payment systems have various redressal mechanisms. We have found them to be not uniform across the industry,” Das said. The RBI also said that it is in the process of benchmarking Indian payments systems and instruments against global standards. The findings of this study would be published in May 2019.
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Payswiff joins hands with PhonePe to push digital payments
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 05 April, 2019
Digital payments player for merchant outlets Payswiff has partnered with PhonePe, one of the largest UPI payments application to allow their merchants to accept payments through PhonePe on their regular as well as mobile PoS terminals. This will allow merchants accept payments through UPI, credit cards, debit cards, PhonePe wallet as well as external wallets. With over 1.5 lakh devices deployed with merchants small enterprise space, Payswiff is present across over 650 locations and the company feels that working with PhonePe will allow Payswiff merchants to offer a seamless payment experience to their consumers.
“PhonePe’s offline payment solutions are extremely fast and simple. Shop owners/cashiers do not require extensive training in using our solutions while ensuring quick and seamless payments for their customers,” said Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, Head of Offline Organised Business at PhonePe. PhonePe is currently accepted at over 3 million offline retail outlets and kirana stores as well as at over 100 top online merchants in India. PhonePe also has a merchant app to facilitate end-to-end control for merchants on the payment process, including transaction confirmation and reconciliation.
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Central banks leading the way in blockchain experimentation
Publication- Money Control
Edition- Online
Date- 05 April, 2019
Although central banks are among the most cautious institutions in the world, they are, perhaps surprisingly, among the first to implement and experiment with blockchain technology. Central banks have been quietly researching its possibilities since 2014. Over the past two years, the beginning of a new wave has emerged as more central banks launch large-scale pilots and research efforts, including rapid and complete cross-border interbank securities. The Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology team at the World Economic Forum interviewed dozens of central bank researchers and analysed more than 60 reports on past and current research efforts. The findings were released in a white paper, titled “Central Banks and Distributed Ledger Technology: How are Central Banks Exploring Blockchain Today?”
“As the blockchain hype cools, we are starting to see the real use cases for blockchain technology take the spotlight,” said Ashley Lannquist, Blockchain Project Lead at the World Economic Forum. “Central bank activities with blockchain and distributed ledger technology are not always well known or communicated. As a result, there is much speculation and misunderstanding about objectives and the state of research. Dozens of central banks around the world are actively investigating whether blockchain can help solve long-standing challenges such as banking and payments system efficiency, payments security and resilience, as well as financial inclusion.”
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Sequoia-backed payments startup BharatPe gets new investor in Series A round
Publication- VC Circle
Edition- Online
Date- 05 April, 2019
Digital payments firm BharatPe, which services offline retailers and businesses, has raised $15.5 million (around Rs 107 crore) in a Series A round of funding. US-based investment firm Insight Partners joined existing investors Sequoia Capital and Beenext in the round, BharatPe said in a statement. The fintech startup, which is owned by Resilient Innovations Pvt. Ltd, said that it will use the fresh capital for scaling up its operations within the next two years.
“The funding will fuel our mission of democratising digital payments for merchants, and make UPI a preferred way to pay,” said Ashneer Grover, chief executive officer and co-founder of BharatPe. UPI, which stands for Unified Payments Interface, is a real-time mobile payments system for inter-bank transactions. “Over the last few months, we have been able to transform payments for over 6,00,000 merchants in India. BharatPe facilitates 10% of overall UPI merchant transactions in the country and accounts for 1% of overall UPI,” Grover added.
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This bank will soon start charging customers for UPI payments
Publication- 91 Mobiles
Edition- Online
Date- 05 April, 2019
In a surprising move, Kotak Mahindra has reportedly become the first bank in India to charge a per transaction fee for peer-to-peer payments done via UPI. As per a report by The Times of India, the bank sent an email notification to account holders informing them about the new move. It is worth noting that the fee is being levied on transactions beyond the free 30 UPI payments available per month to consumers, and will start from May. At the moment, UPI is among the most popular modes of online payment, with millennials favouring the platform for reasons such as fast execution as well as cashback incentives offered by platforms such as Google Pay and Paytm.
Kotak Mahindra notified its account holders that it will charge Rs 2.50 for every transaction of Rs 1,000 or less, and Rs 5 for transactions above Rs 1,000. This will apply to users of UPI regardless of the platform they use, including Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm. Banks such as SBI or HDFC are yet to introduce any charges of this kind for P2P users. However, the move could have a negative impact on the digital payments system which is still growing, and consumers might be forced to move back to cash payments, especially if more banks start adopting the same strategy.
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