Recently, Slice, a payment app, acquired a 5 per cent stake in North East Small Finance (NESF) for $3.42 million - the first such deal by a fintech in a small finance bank. Slice (valued at $1.5 billion, and backed by Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Axis Bank) will technically get a toehold in a scheduled commercial bank if NESF were to get a licence to morph into one down the line Such a transition is well within the banking regulator's declared framework. The transaction has to be seen in a larger context.
While cash cards are not a new concept and the user need not have a bank account, they are yet to gather steam in India. Most cash-card companies are taking the next big step with mobile wallets.
Travellers on Indian Railways can now avail of a new alternative method of booking their online tickets through 'Itz Cash'.
Many of India's fintech entities and banks have stored all their customer data in India; however, many do use foreign servers, for operations, providing services and for data analytics.
The government is also considering mandating payments beyond a prescribed threshold only in card/digital mode.
E-KYCs and Aadhaar authentication are of crucial importance to the fin-tech companies as the recent RBI instructions require strict KYCs for these players to function in the market.
Soon, one will be able to pay utility bills at the local supermarket, while buying groceries, with the RBI allowing the setting up of payment banks.
Experts say the new guideline is likely to hurt foreign players more, especially card companies such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express who process and store credit card transaction data outside of India.
While the acceptance of cards, mobile wallets and banking apps is increasing, only 10 per cent of transactions take place through them.
Unified Payments Interface launched to simplify mobile banking.
Open loop pre-paid cards come with a two-factor authentication. One for ATMs and PoS transactions, and the other for online transactions
While most banks in India store all this data on Indian servers in their core banking systems, the current directive addresses new-age payment and fintech companies operating in the space
Some initial reactions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes with effect from midnight.
From small retailers' experiences with e-wallets to digital transaction numbers post demonetisation, Geetanjali Krishna and Karan Choudhury find out where the truth lies.
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