Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 26 March 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Mar 27, 2019
- 5 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
Digital lending industry asks RBI to allow direct debit for loan repayment
Publication- ET Tech
Edition- Online
Date- 26 March, 2019
The digital lending industry has suggested that the RBI allow direct debit for loan repayment through the instant inter-bank funds transfer mechanism UPI, extend the ‘Udaan’ scheme to fintechs and non-banking finance companies, and make bank funding mandatory for early-stage fintechs. The country's central bank, in its notification dated March 18, had sought the industry’s recommendations on what would help the micro-small-and-medium industry come out of challenging times. Udaan is a central government-run credit guarantee scheme under which small enterprises can access loans from institutions without any collateral. ET reached out to several fintech lending players to understand the difficulties in the MSME financing space and how things could be changed. Players like Capital Float, Lendingkart, Aye Finance and Flexiloans, which are disrupting the way small businesses access finance,play a critical role in changing the way the sector operates.
“Availability of UPI 2.0 (unified payments interface)direct debit mandate and simplified and cost-effective eKYC for customer on-boarding are important for quick and widespread delivery of credit to small enterprises by fintech players, and this is something the RBI can facilitate,” said Manish Lunia, cofounder of Flexiloans, a Mumbai-based digital lending startup. The company has processed more than 8,000 loans aggregating Rs 400 crore.
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Credit and debit cards make for over half of electronic payments volume: RBI Governor
Publication- The Financial Express
Edition- Online
Date- 26 March, 2019
While the total volume of retail electronic payments witnessed about a nine-fold increase over the last five years, card payments continue to contribute more than half of such transactions by volume, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday. The National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system handled 195 crore transactions valued at around Rs 172 lakh crore in 2017-18, growing 4.9 times in terms of volume and 5.9 times in terms in terms of value over the previous five years. Similarly, the number of transactions carried out through credit and debit cards in 2017-18 was 141 crore and 334 crore, respectively. Prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) recorded a volume of about 346 crore transactions, valued at Rs 1.4 lakh crore. “Thus, the total card payments, in volume terms, stood at 52% of the total retail payments during the year 2017-18,” Das observed.
Banks have been the traditional gateway to payment services, but with increasing technological changes, payments is no longer the monopoly of banks, Das said. “Non-bank entities are cooperating as well as competing with banks, either as technology service providers to banks or by directly providing retail electronic payment services. The regulatory framework has also encouraged this enhanced participation of non-bank entities in the payments domain,” he noted.
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Apple Card credit card announced: What is it all about and how can you get it?
Publication- India Today
Edition- Online
Date- 26 March, 2019
Apple announced a bunch of new services on Monday at its "show time" event as the company looks at more ways to generate revenue amid stagnant iPhone sales. The Apple News+, Apple Arcade and the highly anticipated Apple TV+ platforms are some new subscription-based services offered by Apple that will look to deliver high quality content at a monthly fee. But Apple doesn't want to stop there. The company also wants to become your one-stop destination for making purchases by replacing actual credit cards and introducing its own credit card, called Apple Card. The Apple Card is a digital Credit Card that will allow you to make payments and purchases on credit using Apple's own payment system.
What is Apple Card?
The Apple Card is a full-fledged credit card with a unique number that will be given to you upon registration. The Apple Card lives within the Apple Wallet app and can be used internationally in any country where Apple Pay is accepted. With the Apple Card, the company is trying to simplify the application process, eliminate fees and encourage customers to pay less interest and making frequent payments. Additionally, Apple is also making the purchase experience more attractive by offering something called Daily Cash, which is a rewards program that gives daily cashbacks on purchases. For each purchase you make, you will get a 2 per cent Daily Cash cashback. You will get 3 per cent cashback for every purchase made on Apple's own service like the App Store, iTunes and so on.
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Banks ask RBI to allow recurring payments in UPI 2.0: Report
Publication- Media Nama
Edition- Online
Date- 26 March, 2019
Indian lenders have asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow customers with UPI 2.0-enabled devices to use the recurring payments feature for such things as the monthly instalments on their loans, insurance premiums, and mutual fund investments, the Economic Times reported. UPI is a mobile platform that facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts without requiring details of the beneficiary’s bank account. It also allows users to link multiple bank accounts to a single mobile banking app.
It’s worth noting that when the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the upgraded version of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), dubbed UPI 2.0, in August 2018, the absence of recurring payments had disappointed companies. The RBI said then that the feature was omitted because it was open to misuse. According to the ET report, after UPI 2.0 was launched, the Indian Banks’ Association, with representatives from major public sector and private sector banks, sent a detailed proposal to the regulator seeking permission for regulated financial entities to use recurring payments for loans, premiums and so on.
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WeChat Pay Could Soon Launch in India to Rival Google Pay & Paytm Publication- The Quint
Edition- Online
Date- 26 March, 2019
India’s mobile payment segment is set to add another player in the coming months, with China’s Tencent reportedly planning to launch its WeChat Pay in the country. The payment player will rival existing options like Google Pay and, of course, Paytm, which is the leading mobile payment player in the market. The news of WeChat Pay entering India has been reported by news portal Entrackrand it’s the second major messaging platform after WhatsApp to enter India’s payment space.
It’s likely that WeChat will tie up with one of the major Indian banks to get its business going, and sign up for the country’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to make payments available to mobile users. The report, quoting multiple sources from National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) says that Tencent officials have met with the payment body to obtain a full-fledged payment license in India. Tencent, better known for its PUBG Mobile multiplayer game in the country, wants WeChat Pay to join the ranks of Xiaomi’s Mi Pay and Google Pay among others and make hay in the ever-growing mobile payment segment in India.
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https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/tech-news/wechat-pay-mobile-paytm-google-pay-rival-india-launch-soon
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