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Voda-Idea explores M&A for Vodafone M-Pesa
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 15 May, 2019
Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd. (VMPL), the payments wallet owned by Vodafone Idea, is considering merging its business with an associate company or a third party, but in the interim, has applied to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for extension of its prepaid payment instrument (PPI) license. “Presently, VMPL has applied to RBI for further extension of its PPI license while also evaluating option of merging this business with associate entity or any third party,” Vodafone Idea said during its fiscal fourth quarter results announced on Monday.
The moves are prompted by the fact that Vodafone Idea - created by the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Group – holds 100% of Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd. (VMPL) besides 49% shareholding in Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited (ABIPBL). But, as per RBI guidelines, the same promoter group – in this case Vodafone Idea - cannot have a payments banking business in one entity and prepaid payment instruments (PPI) business in another entity. ‘Based on various discussions, the regulator (RBI) had initially permitted these two entities to carry on the business until December 31, 2018 which was later extended to March 31, 2019,’ the telco said, adding that it is now in talks with the central bank for a further extension of the PPI license, while also exploring an M&A for the business.
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Rise of smaller rivals throws up fresh challenge to bitcoin
Publication- Money Control
Edition- Online
Date- 15 May, 2019
Bitcoin's weathered hacks, heists, booms and busts to reign as the king of cryptocurrencies through its first decade. But now there's a fresh challenge to its dominance of the fledgling market: some 2,000 smaller digital coins. Collectively, "altcoins" are gaining ground on their bigger cousin. Individually, they are gaining traction among users, gathering communities of developers and users often deeply devoted to their goals.
Bitcoin now accounts for around 60% of the $240 billion crypto market, down from nearly 90% just over two years ago. That fading dominance reflects tough times for the original cryptocurrency since its late 2017 apex. Bitcoin has almost doubled in value this year, rallying nearly 30% in recent days to touch its highest level in ten months on May 14. But last year it lost three-quarters of its value.
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Google Pay Leaps Beyond UPI; Debit/Credit Card Payment Coming Soon Via Google Pay
Publication- Trak
Edition- Online
Date- 15 May, 2019
Digital Payments in India have witnessed a tremendous change since the government announced the surprise demonetization in 2016. With more and more companies joining the list of digital payment solutions, such as Facebook Payment, Whatsapp Payment, Amazon Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, it is triggering a new revolution in the digital payment sector.
Google Pay, which currently uses UPI to facilitate payments, is soon going to offer Indian consumers the option to pay through debit or credit card saved on its platform. At the IO19 developers’ conference in San Francisco last week, Avnish Miduthuri, product manager at Google, announced that the tech giant is not only working on adding a number of places where Google Pay will work but is also working on increasing the ways of paying through the app. These changes are aimed to help users have a smooth shopping experience without having to leave the app.
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UPI & QR Code Can Be Made Compulsory For All Merchants, Shops, Invoice – Will This Work?
Publication- Trak
Edition- Online
Date- 15 May, 2019
Govt. of India wants a hardcore ‘behavioral change’ for all Indians when it comes to digital transactions. And for that, very soon, QR Code enabled UPI payments can be made compulsory for all shops and merchants, across India. This means, that whenever a customer wants to make a payment at a merchant or a Kirana store or any other shop, he/she will get a QR code option by default.
Will this work?
QR Code Based UPI Payment Will Be Compulsory?
Govt. wants more and more B2C payments to be made digitally, and to implement this, a major decision has been almost finalized: Every merchant and shop in India will be asked to display a QR code, by law. That QR code will be linked with UPI based payment mechanism.
Hence, a user having any UPI supported wallet or app can just scan the QR code, and make the payment. The objective here is to enable more and more digital transactions and to provide incentives for the same. A Govt. official said, “We are looking at incentives for both, the shopkeeper or the restaurant owner as well as consumers,”
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