Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 16 January 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 16, 2019
- 4 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
Blockchain, AI providing traction to India’s crowdfunding platforms
Publication- The Financial Express
Edition- Online
Date- 16 January, 2019
Although crowdfunding in India is at a nascent stage, with only 15 notable crowdfunding platforms (CFPs), the concept holds immense potential for the country’s startup ecosystem. People can utilise these platforms to raise money for projects and also to gauge public response, viability and popularity of the product. However, the notion of a regulated online CFP, especially with all the computer jargon accompanying it, is often unfamiliar to potential investors. This makes it imperative for them to understand the benefits of blockchain and AI within a CFP and how CFPs will change P2P (Peer-to-Peer) lending and investing, and also guarantee the security of their investments.
India’s history with fundraising has witnessed unfortunate incidents such as NSEL and CIS scams, which have made it evident that a regulatory vacuum in financial matters is a bad idea, and can lead to money laundering, terror financing and other perilous racketeering. Hence, India must bring these online platforms under a stringent framework to legitimise the activity as well as aid capital formation. Both NITI Aayog and DEA can work towards this as an alternate markets division within the SEBI, and that would be the easiest, strongest and least disruptive way of creating a regulatory framework, and can address problems of high interest rates, misuse of funds, exaggerated return figures and high default rates that are typically found in a P2P lending market.
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Digital payments: Small shops get banks’ backing for lower UPI charges
Publication- The Financial Express
Edition- Online
Date- 16 January, 2019
With a view to driving digital transactions, banks have suggested to the government that smaller vendors be on-boarded as peers, thereby sparing them the merchant discount rate (MDR). Banks have asked the government to consider giving small vendors the status of peers for QR-based Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. If the suggestion is implemented, the eligible merchants will not need to shell out the MDR, or the fee charged by banks for offering payment-acceptance infrastructure. The MDR for UPI transactions stands at 0.25% for transactions under Rs 1,000 and 0.65% for all other transactions. An executive with a large private sector bank pointed out that small merchants were averse to transacting digitally because of the high MDR. “In UPI, conceptually, a small merchant can also be on-boarded as a peer. These will be vendors below a certain threshold, not the bigger ones,” the executive explained.
While UPI transactions have grown manifold since the launch of the payment mode in 2016, peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions account for an overwhelmingly large share of the pie. In December 2018, a total of 620 million transactions worth `1.02 lakh crore were made using the UPI channel. However, of these, only between 10-12% are merchant payments, industry players say. Most merchant UPI transactions are made on e-commerce platforms, with small store fronts remaining out of reach for banks. Banks say that it is not only expensive for them to tap the very small merchants, but it is also unremunerated in the absence of consumers who are savvy enough to make QR-based payments using their smartphones.
Please click on the link below:
https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/banking-finance/upi-banks-bat-for-adding-small-merchants-as-peers/1445042/
This bank has settled forex deals worth $250 bn on blockchain
Publication- Tech Circle
Edition- Online
Date- 16 January, 2019
HSBC has settled $250 billion worth of forex trades using blockchain in the last year, it said on Monday, suggesting the heavily hyped technology is gaining traction in a sector until now hesitant to embrace it. The bank has settled over three million forex trades and made over 150,000 payments since February using blockchain, it said in a statement. HSBC would not give data on forex trades settled by traditional processes, saying only that those settled by blockchain represented a "small" proportion. Still, the data marks a significant milestone in the use of blockchain by mainstream finance, which has until now been reluctant to start using the technology at any scale. Blockchain is a shared database that can process and settle transactions in minutes.
Originally conceived to underpin the cryptocurrency bitcoin, the technology does not require third-parties for checks and its entries cannot be changed, making it highly secure. Banks and other financial firms have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the technology, hoping it will simplify and slash costs in processes from settlements to payments. But few banks moved from testing to implementation of blockchain in large-scale projects.
Please click on the link below:
https://techcircle.vccircle.com/2019/01/15/this-bank-has-settled-forex-deals-worth-250-bn-on-blockchain-over-the-past-year
Mobile Wallet Market Competition by Key Players/Suppliers, Business Tactics, Gross Margin by Applications Forecast 2025
Publication- Blog of India
Edition- Online
Date- 16 January, 2019
Mobile Wallet Market Report provides detailed insight, industry knowledge, market forecasts, and analytics. Report on Mobile Wallet Industry also illuminates economic risk and environmental compliance. Mobile Wallet Market Report assists industry leaders to make confident capital investment decisions, develop strategic plans, optimize their business portfolio, innovate successfully and operate safely and sustainably. The Report includes Several Company Profiles of who are market Key Players Alibaba Group, Apple, Citrus Payment Solutions, Google, MasterCard, Oxigen Services, PayPal Holdings, Samsung Electronics, Visa, . The Mobile Wallet Market Report advises the challenges hindering market development with Most Rewarding growth opportunities.
Please click on the link below:
https://www.blogofindia.in/37139/mobile-wallet-market-competition-by-key-players-suppliers-business-tactics-gross-margin-by-applications-forecast-2025/
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