Uday Kotak, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Asserting that Indian banks have been behind the curve in tapping payments technology, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director Uday Kotak on Friday said they need to wake up before large parts of the traditional financial markets move out from them. Indian bankers have been short-sighted on the payments business in the last couple of years as they saw no money in payments, Kotak said at Infinity Forum organised by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and Bloomberg.

As a result, they have allowed the growth of unified payments interface (UPI) payments monopolised by two players, Google Pay and PhonePe which have got 85 per cent market share, he said.

Therefore, it’s a wake-up call for Indian banking, he said: “Wake up, you will see large parts of the traditional financial markets move out.”

Having said that, he said, “We have to keep in mind that consumer tech companies have revenue models outside of finance. For instance, the advertising model or the e-commerce model. Banks, by law, under Section 6 of the Banking Regulation Act cannot get into non-financial business as defined.”

Therefore, there are serious issues about how you are going to draw the lines and simultaneously, there is an issue about financial stability, he said.

“I was reading an article which said that when you put a regulated entity into competition with a fintech or a consumer tech, the standard approach of the consumer tech is to play fast and loose on regulation and gain market share at great speed.

“I am not against competition. All that I’m saying is we need to make sure that in the name of better competitive service, we don’t have a systemic and a stability challenge at the same time,” he said.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that the most important aspect of digital growth is consumer trust that has to be protected at all costs.

“So, we need to make sure that as we go for fintech and grow it, we must also be clear that we do not betray trust,” he said.

On the homegrown payments ecosystem, Kotak said UPI payments as well as Aadhaar unique identity basis for transactions are remarkable innovations and they could be exported globally.



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Digital payments remain strong, marginal decline in November

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Digital payments continued to maintain a strong momentum in November although the value and volume of transactions fell marginally compared to the record highs of October that was led by festive season spends.

The Unified Payments Interface, which crossed the 400 crore mark for the number of transactions in October, continued to remain well above the level.

However, the number of transactions on the UPI platform declined slightly to 418 crore in November 2021 compared to 421 crore transactions recorded in October, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India.

The value of transactions processed through UPI last month was also buoyant but slightly lower at ₹7.68 lakh crore compared to ₹7.71 lakh crore in October.

Experts believe that UPI will continue to register robust growth and acceptance given the multiple use cases including the AutoPay feature and IPO subscription.

On a daily basis on an average, over 13 crore transactions worth at least ₹25,000 crore took place through UPI in November.

IMPS transactions

Transactions on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platform also remained robust but saw a similar decline to 41.2 crore in November from 43.06 crore in October. The value of transactions processed through IMPS fell to ₹3.64 lakh crore in November from ₹3.7 lakh crore a year ago.

As many as 21.41 crore toll collection related transactions worth ₹3,177.17 crore took place through NETC FASTags in November compared to 21.42 crore payments amounting to ₹3,356.74 crore in October 2021.

Payments through AePS however, bucked the trend to rise marginally in terms of value in November 2021. As many as 9.46 crore transactions worth ₹25,687.66 crore took place through AePS last month compared to 9.68 crore transactions totalling ₹25,410.12 crore in October.

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WhatsApp wins approval to double payments offering to 40 million users in India

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WhatsApp has won regulatory approval to double the number of users on its payments service in India to 40 million, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters on Friday.

The company had requested that there should be no cap on users of its payment service in India.

Instead, the National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI)this week told the company it could double the user base to which it can offer its payment service – currently restricted to 20 million.

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta.

The source said the new cap would still hinder the company’s growth prospects given that WhatsApp’s messenger service has more than 500 million users in India, the company’s biggest market.

It was not clear when the new cap would come into effect.

WhatsApp did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the NPCI declined to comment.

WhatsApp competes with Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay,SoftBank- and Ant Group-backed Paytm and Walmart’sPhonePe in India’s crowded digital market.

The NPCI gave WhatsApp approval to start its payments service last year after the company spent years trying to comply with Indian regulations, including data storage norms that require all payments-related data to be stored locally.

WhatsApp has almost reached its user base of 20 million for payment services, said the source, who declined to be identified as the details are private.

Online transactions, lending and e-wallet services have been growing rapidly in India, led by a government push to make the country’s cash-loving merchants and consumers adopt digital payments

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Yes Bank partners Amazon Pay for UPI, chooses AWS for payment processing, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Mumbai: Yes Bank has partnered with Amazon Pay and AWS to offer UPI payment to users. In FY21, Yes Bank recorded a market share of around 40% by volume in the UPI ecosystem and around 30% by volume in the UPI merchant acquiring business thanks to the integration with PhonePe.

The integration with Amazon Pay will enable the US e-commerce giant, which is a late entrant into the payment space, to issue UPI IDs with the @yapl handle. The tie-up will further expand Yes Bank’s presence in UPI with its payment processing platform hosted on AWS.

Based on a multi-bank model, this collaboration allows Yes Bank to acquire merchants through the Amazon Pay platform, adding to its existing merchant network.

The private lender said it has developed a cloud-native UPI processing platform to optimally handle the high traffic of transactions observed during surge periods like festivals or annual sales.

“With this collaboration, we will be able to offer our customers more control, flexibility and choice for a vast range of purchases and peer-to-peer transactions — through UPI-based payments,” said Prashant Kumar, MD & CEO, Yes Bank.

According to Mahendra Nerurkar, CEO and VP, Amazon Pay, the company plans to expand its digital payment network by making it more rewarding for customers. “UPI is one of the most convenient and popular ways to pay in India. With a cloud-native architecture we hope to keep raising the bar on availability, speed and customer experience using UPI through the Amazon app,” said Nerurkar.



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PhonePe surpasses two billion mark in monthly transactions in October

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Homegrown digital payments platform PhonePe on Wednesday announced that it has processed over two billion transactions on its platform in October 2021.

The platform had crossed the one billion monthly transaction mark in February this year, and has now hit the two billion milestone in eight months.

It’s significant growth comes on the back of rapid traction across Tier II, Tier III cities and beyond, it said. PhonePe said that it has seen over 145 million monthly active users, $600 billion annualised total payments value (TPV) and digital transactions from over 19000 pin codes.

Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO, PhonePe said, “Last month was phenomenal for PhonePe, as we processed our highest ever transactions till date, cementing our position as India’s leading payments platform.”

“The fact that 80 per cent of our transactions come from Tier II, Tier III cities and beyond, show that digital payments have truly penetrated across the length and breadth of the country. We will continue to build the most preferred digital payments and financial services destination for a billion plus Indians while transforming lives positively,” added Nigam.

The platform has crossed this milestones as digital payments continue to gain traction.

Amidst festival season sales and opening up of the economy, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions touched a record high at ₹7.71 lakh crore in value terms in October. This marked a new record for UPI, which is fast becoming the most popular choice for digital payments.

It was a 56 per cent jump from ₹6.54 lakh crore in transaction value recorded in September.

According to data recently released by National Payments Corporation of India, the number of transactions on the UPI platform amounted to 421 crore in October, compared to 365 crore in September.

PhonePe and Google Pay continue to maintain their lead as the most popular UPI payment apps, with the two apps enjoying market shares of 44 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, in the first six months of 2021, according to a recent 2021 India Mobile Payments Market report. Together, the two apps handled more than 12 billion transactions worth $338 billion, as per the report.

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Reliance makes final call for payment on rights issue, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has a second and final payment from those who were issued 42.26 crore company shares in a rights issue. And to assist shareholders, it has re-activated WhatsApp Chatbot 7977111111.

In a regulatory filing, the company said a notice for payment of Second and Final Call on 42,26,26,894 partly paid-up equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each issued and allotted on rights basis on May 15, 2020, has been issued.

Reliance had made a Rights Issue of 42.26 crore equity shares at Rs 1,257 each. The final call of 50 per cent of the amount – Rs 628.50 per share – has now become due.

Reliance’s rights issue at a total size of Rs 53,125 crore was the largest ever rights issue in India. This was the world’s largest rights issue by a non-financial company in the last 10 years.

The existing shareholders of the company were offered new shares of the company in a 1:15 ratio.

November 10, 2021, was the record date to decide holders of the Reliance Partly Paid-up shares, who need to pay the Second and Final Call.

On payment of the Second and Final Call amount, the partly paid-up shares will transition into fully paid-up shares of Reliance Industries, which are traded under symbol RELIANCE on both NSE and BSE.

To assist investors on the issue, Reliance has re-activated WhatsApp Chatbot.

The AI-enabled easy-to-use Chatbot is developed by Jio‘s group company Haptik and was previously used at the time of Rights Issue in May 2020, and the First call in May 2021.

Reliance in the notice said the Second and Final Call can be paid through online ASBA, Physical ASBA, 3-in-1 account, R-WAP facility (enabled for Net-banking, UPI, NEFT and RTGS payments) and payments through cheque/demand draft.

Payment of the Second and Final Call can be made from November 15 to November 29, 2021 (both days inclusive).

The credit of the fully paid-up equity shares on payment of the Second and Final Call is expected to take place within two weeks from the last date for payment mentioned in the Final Call Notice i.e. within two weeks from November 29, 2021. PTI ANZ BAL BAL



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PM Modi, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi [India], November 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lauded the use of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) across the country and said the digital transactions in India has jumped 19 times in the last seven years.

“UPI has become the world’s leading country in terms of digital transactions in a very short span of time. In just seven years, digital transactions in India has jumped 19 times. Today our banking system is operational 24 hours, 7 days and 12 months anytime, anywhere in the country,” the Prime Minister said while speaking at the launch of two customer-centric initiatives of RBI.

PM Modi said, “Till 6-7 years ago, banking, pension, insurance, everything used to be like an ‘exclusive club in India’. Common citizens of the country, poor families, farmers, small traders-businessmen, women, Dalits-deprived-backwards, all these facilities were far away for all of them.”

The Prime Minister further pointed out that earlier, there were no bank branches, no staff, no internet, no awareness in the banking sector.

“The people who had the responsibility of taking these facilities to the poor also never paid any attention to it. Rather, various excuses were made for not changing. It was said that there is no bank branch, no staff, no internet, no awareness, no idea what were the arguments,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister also lauded the role of cooperative banks in strengthening the banking sector.

“To further strengthen the banking sector, cooperative banks were also brought under the purview of RBI. Due to this the governance of these banks is also improving and the trust in this system is getting stronger even among the lakhs of depositors who are there,” he said.

Earlier today, PM Modi launched two innovative customer-centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India.

The RBI Retail Direct Scheme is aimed at enhancing access to the government securities market for retail investors. It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the Government of India and the State Governments. Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI, free of cost.

The Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme aims to further improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI. The central theme of the scheme is based on ‘One Nation-One Ombudsman’ with one portal, one email and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints.

There will be a single point of reference for customers to file their complaints, submit the documents, track status and provide feedback. A multi-lingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi



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UPI AutoPay sees robust consumer acceptance

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The UPI AutoPay facility has seen widescale adoption by consumers as the norms for standing instructions for recurring payments of the Reserve Bank of India kicked in from October 1.

Data with the National Payments Corporation of India revealed that there were over 40.3 lakh mandate registrations on AutoPay in October with 39 remitter banks on the platform. A total of 1.33 crore mandates were executed on AutoPay last month.

Also read: UPI hits new record with ₹7.71-lakh crore worth of transactions in October

State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda are the top three banks in terms of registration of mandates in October with 13.8 lakh, 4.04 lakh and 3.56 lakh mandates registered respectively with them.

Mandate registration refers to the transaction when the consumer creates a recurring mandate for recurring payments. Execution refers to the transaction when the recurring debit is done on the remitting account.

Sharp uptick

In September too, UPI AutoPay saw a sharp uptick in customer adoption with a 31.43 lakh mandates registered with 35 banks. Over 70.9 lakh mandates were executed on AutoPay in September.

The transactions in October and September were a sharp jump from August when just 17.7 lakh mandates were registered and a total of 33.5 lakh mandates were executed.

The UPI AutoPay services was launched last year for recurring payments. Customers can enable recurring e-mandates on it for payments such as utility bills, entertainment subscriptions, EMI payments, insurance and mutual funds.

A number of merchants including PhonePe, Netflix, Paytm, Gaana, Disney Hotstar, Policybazaar are live on the platform.

Experts and banks had expected it to gain popularity amongst consumers and a surge in card and UPI-based mandates as many payment providers were still in the process of meeting the RBI’s recurring payment norms.

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Shopify survey, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Kruthikaa Lakshman

Contactless payments, especially UPI, is gaining traction this Diwali. Nearly 50% of festive shoppers said that they preferred to process payments via UPI as
opposed to any other form, a survey by e-commerce platform Shopify said.

The survey found that the preference for UPI remains consistent across both, online and offline shopping experiences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lot to do with these trends, the survey said. Though the experience that predates the festival is anticipated by many, the
convenience and safety of online shopping has persisted by 76.9% of the shoppers this festive season, it added.

Shopify India released “The Festive Shopping Outlook Report 2021”, measuring consumer trends in the last month, in time for Diwali. Trends have shown that the festive shoppers who would traditionally begin buying for the season, a month in advance hadn’t done so this year.

With mobile phones and internet access to non-metro shoppers, more and more people were seen opting for the digital medium. Online shopping is prevalent after the pandemic has increased to larger areas of the country, according to the report.

60% shoppers use digital payments multiple times a week for festive season shopping: Survey

Contactless payment using radio frequency identification (RFID) or near field communication (NFC) is also constantly improving. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) recently partnered with YES Bank to launch RuPay On-the-Go contactless payments solutions, which is further pushing shoppers to opt for contactless payments, the survey added.

Further, the survey said that the digital payments platform has been opened by Google Pay for use in contactless UPI patents as well.

In terms of what shoppers shopped for during the season, the survey finds that gold and precious metal jewellery, which have been traditional festive gifting favorites, seem to have fallen out of favor this year.

This year, most shoppers were seen investing in tech gadgets. Electronic gadgets, according to the survey, are all set to command maximum consumer gifting budgets with close to 42% respondents showcasing increased propensity towards it.



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PhonePe launches tokenisation solution – The Hindu BusinessLine

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Digital payments major PhonePe on Tuesday announced the launch of PhonePe SafeCard, which is a tokenisation solution for online debit and credit card transactions.

“This solution will enable both PhonePe users and merchant partners to continue experiencing the convenience of saved card transactions with increased security, and in compliance with the new Reserve Bank of India guidelines,” it said in a statement, adding that the solution supports all major card networks such as Mastercard, Rupay and Visa.

SafeCard will also enable PhonePe merchant partners to offer and use tokenisation on their own platforms through a simple Application programming interface (API) integration.

“With this solution, merchant partners can create, process, delete and modify tokens for online card payments with customers’ consent,” it further said.

“PhonePe SafeCard ensures that the added security doesn’t impact the customer experience at all. We are also closely working with our large merchant base to take them live on this platform,” said Ankit Gaur, Director, Online Business, PhonePe.

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