Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 17 May 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- May 20, 2019
- 6 min read
Spice Money
Spice Money crosses 12 mn transactions; achieves Rs 2400 cr in GTV in April
Publication- United News of India
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
Tech-enabled Hyper Local Payments Network Spice Money has recently carried out 12 million transactions within the month of April and the transactions have generated a massive Gross Transactional Value of Rs 2400 crore, the company said in a statement here on Thursday.
A business unit of Spice Digital, Spice Money has introduced new product offerings and enriched existing ones to further its goal of extending digitized transactional benefits to a large section of people who have little access to conventional financial facilities. Spice Money, in addition to its Aadhaar Based payment system, has added a Mini-ATM feature that enables users to carry out debit-card based transactions.
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Niti Aayog bats for ending data monopoly
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
The government is considering a proposal to make consumer dataaccessible to all, subject to riders, instead of being the exclusive preserve of a few tech giants, said people with knowledge of the matter. The Niti Aayog proposal to help boost the fintech sector involves setting up an independent regulator with overarching powers to ensure that no entity has monopoly over data that has been anonymised so that the information can’t be tied to specific individuals and their privacy is protected.
This will be available across sectors, beginning with banking, ecommerce, health and education, if the plan is implemented. Information emerging from any transaction will be available and can be obtained by anyone on request.
The UK has mandated nine banks to enable open banking since January 2018 while Europe has made it mandatory for all banks. India has over 1,200 fintech firms including Paytm Payments Bank, ItzCash Card, MobiKwik and PolicyBazaar, among others. Niti Aayog estimates that the Indian fintech sector’s transaction value will more than double to $73 billion in 2020 from about $33 billion in 2016 at a compounded annual growth rate of 22%.
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Fintech sees a blueprint in RBI’s 3 year payments vision
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
The Reserve Bank of India’s three-year vision for payments and settlements systems will offer huge opportunities for technology-enabled disruptions in finance, say fintech players. Merchant acquisition of non-banks, participation of private entities in retail payments and a wider push to electronic mandates will open fresh business avenues for fintech startups, they say. “While the pursuit towards a ‘less cash’ society continues, accompanied by the ambition to have a lesscard India as well, the endeavour is to... serve segments of the population which are hitherto untouched by the payment systems,” the sector regulator outlined in its ‘Vision Document on the Payments and Settlements Systems for 2019-2021’.
A customer-centric approach to ensure prevention of fraud through digital channels puts the onus on banks and digital payments players to ensure stricter security checks and controls, according to the document. The central bank has also stressed on creating consumer awareness. “Giving access to all regulated entities to acquire their own merchants is a positive step, especially towards NBFCs, and is an indication that there could be more access given to these players in the future,” said Naveen Surya, chairman of Fintech Convergence Council, an industry body for fintech companies. FCC has raised issues in the past about allowing NBFCs to issue their own credit cards.
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Google Pay is Partnering With App Developers and Online Businesses to Drive Payments
Publication- News 18
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
With WhatsApp getting ready to launch UPI (Unified Payments Interface) based payments feature within the app, existing payment players are devising their own plans. Google is working on expanding the reach of its payments platform (Google Pay) in India and sources say that it will launch a new project through its partners using an SDK which will be rolled out later this year. Google is going to introduce an in-app engagement rewards platform which should help developers and businesses to get better engagement on their apps. Called as Project Cruiser, the initiative has been led by Google’s Next Billion Users team, and has been under development since last year.
After successfully incorporating the feature into their apps, developers will be able to offer rewards to users to when they use the app. For instance, when a user places their first order, or when they invite their friends or family to use the app, and so on. In return, users will be able to earn a small amount of money. This is similar to the reward ‘scratch cards’ you get when you use Google Pay to make payments. According to TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson declined to comment on the plans but said, “We’re always looking at ways to serve the next billion users better, but we have nothing to share at this point.”
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Vodafone Idea seeking merger for its M-Pesa wallet to comply with RBI rules
Publication- Medianama
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
Vodafone Idea is looking at merging its payments wallet, Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd (VMPL), with an associate or third-party firm, the company said in Q4 results, released on Monday. The company wants to hive off VPML because it also owns 49% of Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited, having been created by the merger of Vodafone India with the Aditya Birla-owned Idea Group in 2018. RBI guidelines state that a single promoter group cannot have a payments banking business in one entity and prepaid payment instruments (PPI) business in another. “Based on various discussions, 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 company wrote. In the meantime, it has applied for an extension of its prepaid payment instrument (PPI) license.
Mobile wallets face KYC compliance deadline
Wallet companies have been conducting paper-based KYC since the Supreme Court banned private entities from using Aadhaar last year. In February, the RBI gave mobile wallets another six months to comply with KYC requirements, extending the previous deadline of February 28. The RBI said that the extension was granted “based on requests received from various stakeholders” given that alternative systems had to be figured out to replace Aadhaar-based e-KYC. Around 70-80% of the wallet user base was yet to comply with KYC norms at the time. According to RBI’s master circular on prepaid payment instruments (PPI), users who have not completed KYC will not be allowed to add money to their wallets.
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5 key talking points from the RBI's Vision 2019-2021 for Payments and Settlements in India
Publication- Medianama
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
The RBI, a couple of days ago, released its Vision 2019-2021 document for the digital payments ecosystem, where it identifies what it intends to achieve in the next three years, and the regulatory changes that will follow in order to achieve these goals. A summary of the document is available here. A few talking points for you to consider, based on the direction outlined in the vision:
NPCI is becoming all-powerful, but is not accountable:
1 No competition for NPCI: Competition is the first goal post of the four that the RBI Vision 2019-2021 highlights. However, no competition for the NPCI seems to be envisioned in the document. In fact the NPCI seems to the most prominent non-RBI vehicle for achieving this vision:
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Reducing friction in digital payments
Publication- Observer Research Foundation
Edition- Online
Date- 17 May, 2019
ORF in conjunction with the Koan Advisory Group has come out with a report titled ‘Towards a Cyber-Security Roadmap for Digital Payments: Best Practices and Recommendations’ to smoothen and strengthen the digital payments system in India. The report, developed by Sidharth Deb of the Koan Advisory Group, was released on 3 May at ORF during a round-table discussion deliberating issues of friction which hinder the adoption of digital payments in India.
Moderating and initiating the discussion, Mihir Swarup Sharma, Head, Economy and Growth Programme, ORF, pointed out that the importance of the issue in India is unique. Policy responses are required to keep pace with the growth of a space which is seen as a pivotal component of India’s digital/Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) growth story. Moreover, digital payments is inextricably linked with Demonetization decision of the Modi Government which invalidated the then high-value currency notes (INR 500 and 1000 respectively) or more than 86 percent of the total value of cash in circulation at the time. IN this scenario, Sharma said it was decided that a thoughtful discussion could help identify bottlenecks to digital payments adoption, its interplay with transaction security and a potential future pathway which can aid future dispensations in stimulating the adoption of digital payments in the near to mid-term.
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