Spice Money: Industry Monitoring 29 January 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 29, 2019
- 5 min read
Spice Money
Industry News
“Banks to experiment with new mobile applications and voice-enabled gadgets to enhance both delivery and contextual personalization”—Saket Agarwal, Global CEO, Spice Money
Publication- Wire 19
Edition- Online
Date- 29 January, 2019
Banking sector is increasingly becoming strategically focused and technologically advanced to meet up to the consumer expectations. All this while trying to defend the market share against an increasing barrage of competitors. Digitization of fundamental business processes and reassessment of the organizational structures and internal talent is being stressed upon for preparing better for the future of banking – the digital banking. We took an exclusive interview of Saket Agarwal, Global CEO, Spice Money.
Read on as he discusses the trends that will shape the banking sector in 2019, challenges Indian financial and digital payment industry face today, as well as how Spice Money uses latest technologies to deliver seamless financial services to its end customers.
1. To begin with, please give our readers a brief introduction to Spice Money.
We are a tech-enabled hyper local payments player offering cash-in & cash-out, bill payments, airtime recharge and mPoS (mobile point of sale) services. Our target segment is the urban-rural and rural India by geography. Within that we have a range of customer segments like local government executives, professionals like teachers and doctors, local traders, retailers, agriculture workers and people receiving subsidy support from the government. While the customer segments seem diverse, the common theme is the lack of traditional financial products and services relevant for them. This part of India is spread out with much lesser density and therefore the traditional asset heavy banking infrastructure hasn’t been able to create a feasible reach and relevance.
Please click on the link below:
Toffee Insurance introduces salary protect plan for the next half billion
Publication- Business Standard
Edition- Online
Date- 29 January, 2019
Toffee Insurance, a Gurgaon-based all-digital insurtech startup has recently announced India's first Salary Protect Plan (Kamai Bachao Yojna) Health insurance to protect loss of income in case of hospitalization. Toffee has partnered with EKO, a digital lending platform for domestic remittances. The idea is to enable previously underserved and disempowered Indians from low - and lower middle-income populations to now access much-needed insurance services. Toffee Insurance's partnership with Eko is a part of the financial inclusion plan for the Next Half Billion who represent the 500 million first-time internet users expected to come online within the next 5 years via their mobile phones.
For a migrant laborer working in a far-off metro, income loss can be devastating. Insurance protection, while needed, is a forbidding prospect with lack of options and accessibility. It is with this in mind that Toffee Insurance designed a product that is sensitive, simple and designed especially for easy purchase and claims.
Please click on the link below:
Buy Bandhan Bank around Rs 425, says Shabbir Kayyumi
Publication- Money Control
Edition- Online
Date- 29 January, 2019
Bandhan Bank bottomed out near the levels of Rs 405-407 and has been consolidating for last few days on daily chart. Emergence of green candles near the support line on daily chart indicates up side movement in the coming sessions.
Daily momentum indicator RSI seems to be turning towards on northward side also creating positive rhythm in the scrip. Furthermore, bullish crossover in MACD adds the conviction of buying the scrip around Rs 425 for the target of Rs 460 with stop loss of Rs 404 marks.
Please click on the link below:
Post e-commerce, e-wallets now stymied by govt regulations
Publication- The Times of India
Edition- Online
Date- 29 January, 2019
After e-commerce’s tussle with government regulations, it is now digital payments that is staring at serious uncertainties owing to sector regulations. Lakhs of mobile wallets are set to become invalid by the end of February as these companies are struggling to comply with RBI rules for user-data verification or KYC. It is estimated that as high as 80% of transacting users are yet to comply with KYC. The SC ruling that barred private entities from using Aadhaar has made it tougher for companies to do KYC. While a partial KYC could previously be done on the basis of an OTP to the mobile number, now a full KYC needs to be done, which involves submission of various documents, including ID proof and address proof. For users, who largely use wallets for small payments, the hassle of completing the process has proven to be cumbersome.
Many have moved to simpler products like (UPI), which transfers money from one bank account to another directly, without the need to load a wallet. In December, UPI saw over 620 million transactions. In comparison, mobile wallets saw transaction volumes falling in November to under 350 million. The data is from RBI Unified Payments Interface and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Wallets saw exponential growth in the immediate post demonetization period, but the growth has slowed over time, with degrowth in the last month for which data is available.
Please click on the link below:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/most-e-wallets-may-get-invalid-by-february/articleshow/67733084.cms
Alert! Most e-wallets might become invalid by February-end
Publication- Times Now News
Edition- Online
Date- 29 January, 2019
After tightening E-commerce norms, digital wallets might be next. It may be noted that in its Aadhaar judgement, Supreme Court barred private entities from using Aadhaar data for KYC. According to a Times of India report, lakhs of mobile wallets might become invalid by the end of next month as the companies are not able to comply with RBI norms of user-data verification. The report stated that according to estimates so far, over 80% of digital wallet users have not yet complied with KYC. The users can complete partial KYC using OTP verification method but, in order to complete full KYC, they need to submit documents like address proof and ID proof. Since this process seems tedious, people are now shifting to UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions.
The data is from RBI and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) suggests that while the use of wallets grew exponentially post demonetization, the numbers have gone down in the last couple of months. However, in December last year, UPI witnessed 620 million transactions. A Bengaluru-based payments company was quoted in the national daily report saying, "There has been a constant discussion with the banking regulator on extension and alternative KYC tools but nothing has been accepted as of now. " Other companies are also facing hurdles to comply with the KYC norms.
Please click on the link below:
https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/article/alert-most-e-wallets-might-become-invalid-by-february-end/355861
ICICI, Axis, HDFC Bank, 8 others set to launch blockchain-linked funding for SMEs
Publication- Money Control
Edition- Online
Date- 29 January, 2019
A group of 11 big banks will soon launch India's first block-chain linked funding for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a move which may bring about a drastic change to lending practices. These banks include ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, RBL Bank, Yes Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and South Indian Bank. State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank and Bank of Baroda will be involved in this initiative as outside members, The Economic Times reported.
"The idea of having such an organization is to remove any communication hurdle among the different banks. A blockchain network can only thrive if the entire ecosystem is working in synergy through a single network," Abhijeet Singh, Head of Business Technology at ICICI Bank, told the newspaper. A consortium called the Blockchain Infrastructure Company (BIC) is mediating this discussion between the participating banks. Representatives from the banks have met a few times to establish a live network to make supply-chain finance more transparent and secure.
Please click on the link below:
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/icici-axis-hdfc-bank-8-others-set-to-launch-blockchain-linked-funding-for-smes-3447811.html
Comments