Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 12 to 14 January 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 15, 2019
- 4 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
Are forced bank mergers an emerging risk for investors?
Publication- Livemint
Edition- Online
Date- 14 January, 2019
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. The anti-hero Gold finger’s retort in Ian Fleming’s popular series on a British spy is a fitting description of the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions in India’s banking industry. What is arguably a route to build a stronger enterprise and reward shareholders is emerging as a tool of desperation and even force. It is no longer restricted to public sector banks. Even as the government is forcing able banks like Bank of Baroda to rescue weaklings like Dena Bank through mergers, private sector lenders are looking for marriages that would help them meet regulatory norms.
Exhibit A is micro lender-turned-universal bank Bandhan Bank Ltd. The match between the lender and affordable housing financier Gruh Finance Ltd was made out of desperation. The bank paid a stiff price for it and also got punished by shareholders for choosing the arduous route of merger to fulfil a regulatory rule which it didn’t even end up being successful in meeting. Bandhan Bank’s promoters still have to bring down their stake from 61% to 40% before the regulator lets go of the leash it put on branch expansion.
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Use of UPI picks up pace
Publication- Livemint
Edition- Online
Date- 13 January, 2019
Have you used unified payments interface (UPI) yet? According National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the transaction value on UPI crossed ₹1 trillion and the volume stood at 620.17 million in December. What started as a peer-to-peer transaction platform in August 2016 picked up pace with merchant transaction options in 2018. If you have never used UPI before for merchant payments, here is how it works and what you should know:
If you are not aware about UPI yet, it is basically a payment option available for you to send money to individuals, make bill payments and purchase goods and services. Though there are multiple payment options such as net banking, credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallets, UPI allows you to send money to individual or merchant’s bank account without providing any details such as debit card number, CVV, account number or Indian Financial System Code (IFSC). Here you need to just have to give UPI ID such as name@bankname an individual if she needs to send or receive money. The UPI ID will be linked to your bank account, registered mobile number and you need to have a mobile phone to complete the transaction. In August 2016, UPI started as a person-to-person payment option. By the end of 2018, it has matured in person-to-merchant transaction.
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Here's How Blockchain is Poised to Disrupt Business Operations in 2019
Publication- Deccan Chronicle
Edition- Online
Date- 13 January, 2019
Technology is evolving at a rapid pace and what market experts believe is that 2019 will be the year when Blockchain - the backbone of crypto-currencies - establishes itself as the fastest-growing digital technology. For those not much familiar with Blockchain, it’s a distributed incorruptible digital technology responsible for maintaining a fully encoded database that serves as a ledger where all transactions can be recorded and stored. The development of Blockchain technology is still in its early phase, yet its potential applications in digital marketing are already clear among the organisations that look forward to implementing it in their business operations.
With technology all set to evolve the marketing automation space in the next few years, the marketers will soon have better tools handy in order to build and nurture trust-based relationships with the customers. A wide array of industries have already started showing potential in Blockchain as they embrace the technology with open arms. Businesses these days well understand that it is must to evolve in order to stay competitive. This means streamlining the various processes for meeting the demands of digitally savvy customers.
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WhatsApp to get feature used by payment apps for security
Publication- Business Today
Edition- Online
Date- 13 January, 2019
As popular as WhatsApp is, there is no wonder that it has turned into the primary communication application for many. So much so that it has become a viable alternative for mail clients, text and multimedia messages, and even the phone app. In a day's usage, this one instant messaging application usually handles everything from written communication, documents, calls, and more. And with WhatsApp Payments catching up, it is only safe to assume that it will soon become a popular platform for money transactions too.
With such a wide spectrum of uses on offer, WhatsApp has decided to step up the security around the app. In the first beta update this year, WhatsApp has introduced the Authentication feature for an extra layer of security. The feature has been rolled out in WhatsApp beta update 2.19.3 version for Android devices. It is available for devices running Android Marshmallow or higher and equipped with a fingerprint sensor. The Authentication feature on WhatsApp for Android uses either a pre-registered fingerprint on the device or a fresh one on the app.This feature is similar security feature to what has been seen in a few payment apps like the Google Pay and Samsung Pay. While there are third party apps which can put a fingerprint lock, it will be interesting to see how effective native fingerprint protection for WhatsApp is.
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Value of UPI transactions grew over 750% in 2018; NPCI to roll out better, secure BHIM app soon
Publication- BGR
Edition- Online
Date- 14 January, 2019
Digital transactions saw a big spike after demonetization in November 2016, however, the pace of adoption was slower than what was anticipated. In December 2018, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the country’s flagship payments platform crossed Rs 1 trillion milestone, a growth of nearly 8-fold compared to the previous year. According to the data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI also achieved a monthly volume of more than 600 million, four times more than in December 2017.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), released data for payments industry till November 2018, which saw a 27 percent rise in volume, and one percent fall compared to the same period till November 2017. Here, the forms of payment include mobile wallets, cards, and mobile banking. Card transactions saw a big growth of 22 percent in volume, and 18 percent in value in November 2018, compared to the same period in November 2017.
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