Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 18 January 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 18, 2019
- 7 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
Kenya's Safaricom's overdraft service exceeds expectations: CEO
Publication- Business Standard
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
Kenya's biggest telecoms operator, Safaricom, notched up one million users for its new overdraft feature on the M-Pesa platform in just eight days, surpassing its CEO's expectations, he said on Thursday. Started 11 years ago as a service to allow Kenyans without access to the banking network to transfer money via mobile phones, M-Pesa now offers loans and savings in conjunction with local banks, as well as merchant payments services. Safaricom, part-owned by South Africa's Vodacom and Britain's Vodafone, launched the new overdraft feature called Fuliza on Jan. 7 this year.
"We got a million (customers) by day eight and by day eight we had lent $10 million. Now we are probably at $15 million," CEO Bob Collymore told Reuters in an interview. "If you don't have enough cash, you simply draw down from the overdraft and you keep drawing down until you have got to your overdraft limit, which is predetermined by an algorithm." Fuliza is underwritten by Kenyan lenders KCB Group and CBA Group, which already had partnerships with Safaricom to offer short-term loans on the M-Pesa platform. M-Pesa has around 20 million active users in Kenya and it has become the principal driver of profit growth for the dominant telecoms provider in East Africa, as revenue from traditional voice and text services has flattened off.
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Card payments set to be more secure, with RBI’s token rule
Publication- Livemint
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
If you have switched many of your transactions to non-cash modes in the last few years, you are not alone. More and more retail investors are switching to non-cash modes—for both person-to-person transfers and person-to-merchant transactions. In the current financial year alone, the number of credit card transactions at points of sale (PoS) has gone up from 132.32 million in April to 145.85 million in November 2018, according to the latest Reserve Bank of India data. For debit cards, the volume is up from 333.77 million in April to 376.57 million in November. Volumes have increased for other modes of retail transactions, such as mobile wallets or UPI (Unified Payments Interface), as well.
While non-cash transactions simplify processes and save time and effort, they also make you susceptible to frauds. In order to ensure that you, the consumer, is least susceptible to frauds and your card transactions remain secure, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed card networks like Rupay, Visa or Mastercard to offer card tokenisation service for retail transactions. After it becomes operational, you may not find a significant difference in the way you do a digital transaction for a merchant payment, in reality, your transaction will become more secure. We tell you what tokenisation is, and how it works and impacts you.
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Fiserv to buy First Data for $22 billion to boost payments business
Publication- Livemint
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
US financial technology provider Fiserv Inc said on Wednesday it had agreed to buy payment processor First Data Corp in a $22 billion all-stock deal, the biggest ever acquisition in the booming market for digital payments. The deal illustrates how providers of commoditized banking services are seeking to diversify by developing or acquiring technology that powers transactions such as credit card purchases and payments through a mobile phone.
Fiserv, one of the biggest technology providers to banks by revenue, said in a statement the acquisition enables it to offer services to financial clients, from enrolling new customers to providing multiple ways to handle physical or digital payments. In an interview, Fiserv President and Chief Executive Jeffery Yabuki said the deal combines “the largest, broadest and best processor of card-based payments” with his firm’s expertise in other areas of payments, such as bank transfers.
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https://www.livemint.com/Companies/E4LikCze3MzrSQni5Z7KkJ/Fiserv-to-buy-First-Data-for-22-billion-to-boost-payments-b.html
Syndicate Bank to use block chain for ATM reconciliation
Publication- The Times of India
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
Indian banks like , and have so far been using blockchain for cross-border remittances. is now extending its usage by creating a private blockchain for ATM reconciliation. Blockchain is a that records transactions occurring between different blocks - and Syndicate Bank is now keeping ATM machines as one of the blocks to help verify transactions and alert the customer in nano-seconds. "Say you are a Syndicate Bank customer taking money out of say a Syndicate Bank or ICICI Bank ATM. If say you tried to withdraw Rs 10,000 and you get a message saying your account has been debited, but cash has not been dispensed - what do you do?" asks Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, MD, Syndicate Bank. The normal procedure is to call the customer's bank, report the incident. And then wait for 4-5 working days, as the bank checks its systems to verify if the transaction has occurred or not and then reverse the amount. "Meanwhile it's five days of tension for you. But in a blockchain model that need not be the case," says Mahapatra.
When the ATM becomes a block in a series of transactions, the system would immediately check the opening balance for the day, run through all the transactions that took place since then, and if there is more money in the ATM than what the digital transactions noted, that means it's obvious your money has not been dispensed. "So our system will immediately alert you - 'Your attempt to withdraw Rs 10,000 has failed as cash was not dispensed. The amount will be reversed back to the account within 2 working days'." says Mahapatra.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/syndicate-bank-to-use-blockchain-for-atm-reconciliation/articleshow/67575911.cms
Blockchain tech to boost shrimp exports from Andhra Pradesh
Publication- The New Indian Express
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
After adopting Blockchain technology in various aspects of administration, the State government is now planning to implement it for tackling the excessive use of antibiotics and other illegal issues in aquaculture. The Fisheries Department and the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) are working towards launching a pilot project, which helps monitor the entire supply chain of shrimp cultivation. Even though Andhra Pradesh is the largest exporter of shrimp in the country, it also tops the list of number of rejections by major markets. According to the statistics, 60 per cent of the rejections last year were due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics by the shrimp farmers of the State.
Using the Blockchain technology, encrypted data of the entire supply chain involved in shrimp cultivation -- right from the location of the pond, process of the culture, post harvesting and other details -- will be recorded and monitored to ensure quality standards. “We are working with MPEDA and Tata Trusts to leverage Blockchain technology. We are planning to launch the pilot project before the end of this month,” Fisheries Commissioner Rama Shankar Naik told TNIE.
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http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/vijayawada/2019/jan/18/blockchain-tech-to-boost-shrimp-exports-from-ap-1926537.html
Chevron, Total and Reliance join oil blockchain platform Vakt
Publication- The Hans India
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
Oil majors Chevron and Total, along with major Indian refiner Reliance Industries, have joined the blockchain-based platform Vakt, London-based Vakt said on Tuesday. Vakt, already in use by other major trading firms since the end of last year, is the first of many blockchain pilot schemes for commodities trading to go live. The firm was created in 2017 by a consortium that includes oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell, Norway’s Equinor, global energy trading firms Mercuria Energy Group and Koch Supply and Trading, as well as Gunvor Group. Its original shareholders began using the system in November, starting for North Sea crude oil trading.
Banks ABN Amro, ING and Societe Generale are other shareholders. Blockchain, the platform behind cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is viewed by many as a solution to trade and settlement inefficiencies, as well as a way to improve transparency and reduce the risk of fraud. Vakt digitises and centralises what was previously a mountain of paperwork shared between all the parties involved in each deal.“Total has been supporting industry initiatives to digitise cargo post-trade processes for some time,” Total’s head of trading and shipping Thomas Waymel said in a statement.
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Ola Money Postpaid digital credit payment to soon be available to over 150 million users
Publication- Digit
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
Ola Money Postpaid, which is claimed to be the world’s first digital credit payment from a ride-hailing platform, will soon be available to over 150 million users, Ola has announced. The offering, which was launched last year as a pilot, has registered a 30 percent growth month-on-month. Currently by invite-only, the offering to be rolled out for more use cases and merchants soon. Ola has become the world’s first ride-hailing company to introduce digital credit payment by offering “Ola Money Postpaid”. The offering was launched last year as a pilot, and has received tremendous response from customers with 30% growth month-on-month. Ola Money Postpaid furthers Ola’s commitment towards enhancing customer experience and promoting the digital economy across India with innovative solutions in and beyond the mobility space.
Ola Money Postpaid offers a 15 day credit line. Further, the entire experience is seamless as its 1 click enabled without the need of any OTP or password to process the payment. With Ola Money Postpaid, Ola has taken payments on ride sharing platform to another level and brought it at par with utility payments where payments are made once per month post the consumption of services. At present, Ola Money Postpaid is being used by more than 10% of Ola customers and has very promising repeat usage rates. 90% of the early adopters have used the offering more than once.
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Payments company Square launches debit card for small businesses
Publication- Reuters
Edition- Online
Date- 18 January, 2019
Payments company Square Inc is launching a free debit card for small businesses aimed at helping them better manage their cash flows, the company said on Thursday. The MasterCard debit card will allow companies to spend funds from sales they have processed via Square’s payments systems as soon as they have made the sale, the company said. This gives business owners quicker access to the proceeds of sales rather than having to wait for the funds to be transferred and reach their bank account, Square said.
“Sellers can get stuck in a cash flow crunch,” Alyssa Henry, seller lead at Square, said on a call with journalists. “Square card is geared towards helping solve that pain point.” The card will also offer a 2.75 percent discount on purchases made at other Square sellers, the company said. Square, led by Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey, is best known for its small credit card reader that turns smartphones into payment terminals.
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