Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 06 February 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Feb 6, 2019
- 6 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
Fintech cos to unlock wealth in digital villages, build loan portfolios
Publication- Business Standard
Edition- Online
Date- 06 February, 2019
Fintech companies are looking to tap a wider chunk of rural customers after the Union government's announcement to create 100,000 digital villages over the next five years. With digital villages, fintech firms hope to leverage more data to reach out to potential loan seekers. “The initiative to build 100,000 digital villages would mean more money being transacted digitally as the finance minster said (in his budget speech) that we are possibly the lowest when it comes to mobile and data tariffs in the world. Digitally progressive would also mean better internet connectivity and hence, we expect the untapped rural consumers to start using digital payments. For us, this means more alternate data generated to assess loan seekers”, said Rohit Garg, co-founder and chief executive officer of SmartCoin, a Bengaluru-based fin tech startup in direct lending segment.
“Our work in rural areas is already in massive progress and PayNearby campaign of Har Dukan Digital Pradhan is widely popular in rural areas. Budget announcement is an encouragement to us and assurance that we are on right track and aligned to vision of Government. Possibilities of offering to our FinTech services at first mile are immense. Our approach of digitising, sachetising and universalising high-end technology for use of common man is working well in assisted digital services format. Our easy to engage assisted user experience can help lakhs of villagers to borrow small money, get micro insurance, start making deposits in banks rather than almirah and also fulfil their aspirations to buy products which are not available in the village,” said Anand Kumar Bajaj, founder & chief executive officer of PayNearby.
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Now sign up for mutual fund SIPs on Paytm Money without paying upfront
Publication- The Financial Express
Edition- Online
Date- 06 February, 2019
Customers of Alibaba-backed Paytm, looking to invest in SIPs through its mutual fund (MF) investments platform Paytm Money will now have an option to start to their SIPs and pay the investment amount later under its new service Register SIP Now, Pay Later. Paytm Money will send the SIP for registration to the asset management company (AMC) after the first successful payment for SIP in the MF scheme is made, the company said in a blog. “With this new feature investors who wanted to invest via SIPs, but didn’t have funds at the time of registering, can now choose to make the payment when they have the required funds,” said Paytm Money whole-time director Pravin Jadhav in a statement.
More than 75% of investors on Paytm Money are opting for SIPs, the company said. The service is enabled across all MF schemes from all AMCs. Paytm Money said that the amount will be automatically invested on scheduled SIP date for investors who have opted for auto-pay for their SIPs. Those choosing for UPI or Net Banking mode of payment will receive reminders for the same. The company claimed to have acquired more than 1 million users in “few months” of its launch to become the “largest platform for MF investments in India.”
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Govt against giving relief on spectrum payments
Publication- The Times of India
Edition- Online
Date- 06 February, 2019
Debt-laden telecom companies will not be given relief in statutory payments for spectrum, top sources in the government have said. The government feels that companies have to "fight it out in the market", especially as there are different views on a relief package for spectrum payments. While, chairman of the country's largest telecom operator Vodafone-Idea, has petitioned the government for a relief in spectrum payments, Mukesh Ambani's Jio has not supported any such measure. "The government cannot be stepping in on such issues," a senior official said when asked about the mounting losses and heavy debt of companies such as Airtel and VodafoneIdea.
"It is something that needs to be left to market forces," the official said, pointing out that profits and losses were an outcome of the individual strategies of telecom companies. The aggressive entry of with dirt-cheap tariffs has literally broken the back of older telecom companies. Airtel chief has said current tariff levels are unsustainable and there is a need to revise them if Jio also moves up its entry consumer prices. However, Jio - which is breathing down the neck of Airtel in consumer subscription numbers - has made it clear that it has no plans to move away from its aggressive stance. Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has said that industry's debt stands at around Rs 7.7 lakh crore, of which 50% is on account of spectrum payments.
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Gamechanger! How fintech firms are disrupting traditional banking and financial services space
Publication- Zee Business
Edition- Online
Date- 06 February, 2019
Currently, the fintech industry has become a rapidly growing segment in India's financial sector. This is because of young tech-focused startups and other new entrants are changing the way of doing business in financial services, especially in comparison with banks. Javed Tapia, Founder Slonkit states that, fintech is disrupting the traditional banking and financial services space with innovations backed by robust technology and nimble execution capabilities. Tapia says, "We will witness innovative ideas come to life in the fintech space in the coming year." According to Tapia, the year 2019 is the beginning of various changes for fintech industry. Here are top five trends that can be seen in this space.
Digital-only Banks
Rapid digitization of the fintech industry is changing customer’s mindset from conventional banking to convenience banking. Customers do not visit banks anymore. They prefer using services online for convenience and seamlessness. According to a PwC survey, 49% of consumers now conduct their banking primarily on their desktop or smartphones. As per research by Espeo Software, a mobile and web software development company, customer visits to branches of banks are expected to drop by 36 percent between 2017 and 2022, while mobile transactions are expected to grow by 121 percent in the same period.
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UPI processed over 672 Mn transaction in January; BHIM slumps down
Publication- EN Tracker
Edition- Online
Date- 06 February, 2019
The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) registered 672 million transactions amounting to Rs 1, 09,932.43 crores, a mere 8.47 per cent rise in terms of volume and 7.15 per cent hike in terms of value. The above metrics were quite impressive in the last two months when UPI crossed half a billion transaction volume mark and processed over Rs 1 trillion amount in November and December respectively. NPCI-owned instant real-time inter-bank electronic funds transfer system IMPS recorded a 3 per cent fall in transaction volume. In December, it registered an 18 per cent growth in transaction volume worth Rs 1, 46,898.58 crore.
Besides, the government promoted BHIM witnessed a slump down in transaction volume as well as value. According to the data given by NPCI, BHIM processed 13.98 million transactions amounting to Rs 6,202.51 in January. The figure for the previous month was 17.06 million transaction worth Rs 7,789.19. In the past couple of months, BHIM has been facing technical glitches which could be a reason behind the decline in the number of transactions in January. A number of BHIM users have taken it to Twitter to raise their concern. BHIM, however, has assured to restore the snag as soon as possible.
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Mastercard appoints Paul Stoddart as president New Payment Platforms
Publication- Tech Observer
Edition- Online
Date- 06 February, 2019
Mastercard has appointed Paul Stoddart as president, New Payment Platforms, effective March 1, 2019. Stoddart succeeds David Yates, who will transition into a senior advisory role focused on real-time national and cross-border payments strategies, said the company. In this role, Stoddart will oversee the development and strategic integration of Mastercard’s real-time payments capabilities beyond traditional card-based solutions. Among these solutions are Vocalink account-based payments, the Homesend joint venture and Mastercard Send. “Paul’s industry experience and deep immersion in the business makes him the ideal choice to drive the growth of our account- based payment activities,” said Michael Miebach, chief product officer of Mastercard. “In his role as CEO of Vocalink, he has created momentum across the business, renewing relationships with key customers and expanding our infrastructure activities to new markets. We’ll now build on that foundation to deliver the technology and support needed for an expanded world of payments.”
In 2017, Stoddart was named chief executive officer of Vocalink following the company’s acquisition by Mastercard. He originally joined Vocalink as managing director, responsible for strategy, corporate development and its UK and international product portfolios. Prior to Vocalink, Stoddart was responsible for mergers and acquisitions and asset disposal at Barclaycard. Earlier in his career, he spent 12 years at RBS, where he held senior roles in group corporate development, retail direct and the company’s WorldPay division.
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https://techobserver.in/2019/02/06/mastercard-appoints-paul-stoddart-as-president-new-payment-platforms/ "VF�3�W�tUw
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