Under the proposed mechanism, the finance ministry has said banks will notify customers when someone tries to deposit money in their accounts, a government official said.
The NITI Aayog may want us to believe this is one of the easiest payment systems in the world, but Tinesh Bhasin decodes the many unanswered queries and concerns involving the United Payments Interface.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred Paytm Payments Bank from most operations, including taking deposits and fund transfers with effect from March 1, 2024. The curbs on the bank come amid several alleged failures such as violations of know-your-customer (KYC) norms. Under such a scenario, here's what works for customers using Paytm Payments Bank, according to the company.
With over 80 million Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users, Amazon Pay, the payments business of e-commerce giant Amazon, has been growing at 40-50 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), said Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive officer (CEO) and vice-president (V-P), Amazon Pay India. "Leveraging just the micro peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on UPI is not a business model. "While we have enabled those features, we do not chase monthly active users based on this.
Its entry will increase competition especially when WhatsApp too has received approvals to launch payment service.
Despite the demonetisation of 2016 and the rise in digital transactions that followed, the economy's dependence on cash has remained as high as ever. So when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced a pilot project of its version of digital cash - called the central bank digital currency (CBDC) - on December 1, many questions were asked. Can the CBDC replace physical cash, even partially? Can it match cash in terms of convenience? Are CBDC transactions truly anonymous?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India will become the growth engine for the world in the coming years, and the ease of doing business has improved with "mission-mode" reforms being undertaken by his government. Speaking at the BRICS Business Forum Leaders' Dialogue in Johannesburg, Modi also said India soon will become a $5 trillion economy.
Markets regulator Sebi will put in place a framework for the Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) facility for investors in secondary market trading, similar to the existing system for IPO investors. Sebi's board approved the proposal during its meeting here on Wednesday. Through the proposed facility, which would be optional for investors as well as stock brokers, Sebi aims to bring in "efficiency in the secondary market ecosystem by allowing usage of same blocked amount towards margin and settlement obligations.
The currency in circulation (CIC) declined by Rs 7,600 crore in the Diwali week, making it the first such happening in two decades, a report said on Thursday. This was made possible courtesy of a greater reliance on digital payments by people, the report by economists at SBI said, adding that the Indian economy is undergoing a structural transformation at present. They clarified that the Diwali week in 2009 had also witnessed a marginal Rs 950 crore decline in currency in circulation, but that was purely due to the economic slowdown amid the global financial crisis.
rediffGURU Samkit Maniar answers readers' personal income tax queries
More than ever before, women voters can make or mar a political party's electoral fortunes.
Using the app, bank transfers can be done from/to any bank account, making it easier to make payments at no charge. Even non-KYC Paytm users can avail the facility.
At the heart of Paytm's slide lies the abject failure of its Super App strategy, notes Indrajit Gupta.
Has Vijay Shekhar Sharma given up on the bank? For now, he seems to be on a save-OCL mission. The bank will face its logical end, observes Tamal Bandopadhyay.
Going by the RBI directive and the overall narrative, Paytm may have lost the rigour of stress tests, audits and compliance.
India's sprawling digital public infrastructure received a glowing endorsement from billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday as he praised the country's "great" digital network, reliable and low-cost connectivity, and said this will be the cheapest 5G market. Under the G20 presidency of India, a session on 'Building resilient and inclusive economies- the Promise of Digital Public Infrastructure' was held on Wednesday in New Delhi, where the Microsoft co-founder spoke of India's digital identity Aadhaar, its payment infrastructure, and rapid strides that the country has taken in bringing more people into formal banking system. "India in particular, by laying the groundwork for digital public infrastucture starting with identity system, allows people to build on top of that.
In a business friendly move, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday said that the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, used for large value transactions, will be made available round-the-clock in the next few days. In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7x365 basis. Currently, RTGS is available for customers from 7.00 am to 6.00 pm on all working days of a week, except second and fourth Saturdays of every month.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's CEO has warned customers about rising cases of cyber-frauds, citing a recent instance of a fraudster who posed as company executive and under the guise of updating KYC form, tricked a user into revealing bank details to transfer large amount from the bank account. In an email outreach to subscribers, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel urged users to be vigilant against such cases of cyber fraud that are becoming "alarmingly frequent". Vittal spoke of a recent case where a cyber-fraudster posing as company executive called up an Airtel customer on the pretext of updating his Know Your Customer (KYC) form, tricked him into revealing his bank details and transferred a large sum of money from his bank account.
With the arrest of one person from Noida, the cyber cell of Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday claimed to have busted an online fraud nexus worth Rs 3,000 crore with links in China.
As unified payments interface gets popular, cash transactions will come down as most small payments will be routed through this.
In the excitement over the allocation of bank licences for the private sector, a new category of licence offered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last year went almost unnoticed. That was when the RBI consolidated the rules for prepaid payment instruments (PPI), popularly understood as e-wallets or gift cards. In the process, the regulator has fast-forwarded a bottom-up card usage industry in India that is completely different from the world of bank-linked credit and debit cards.
MCLR-linked loans are more responsive to RBI's rate movements, and rate cuts may be transmitted to borrowers in a manner useful to them.
2017 saw the highest-ever mobilisation by way of IPOs of close to Rs 700 billion. The momentum is expected to continue this year as well.
Cryptocurrency exchanges face issues with their current bank accounts.
The government is planning to extend the electronic modes of tax payment to its own payments platform, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), credit cards of banks, or even a mobile wallet like Paytm.
The Unified Payment Interface could propel banking into a new era
WhatsApp on Wednesday said it expects to facilitate the purchase of "affordable sachet-sized" health insurance through its platform by the end of the year as part of its efforts to provide users in India with greater access to financial solutions. The Facebook-owned company noted that its 'Payments' feature is now available to users across the country (currently up to 20 million users) with support from banking partners - State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank.
Earlier this month, RBI told the Delhi high court that Google Pay is a third party app provider and does not operate any payment systems. Therefore, its operations are not in violation of the Payment and Settlement System Act of 2007.
Rapid strides in digital payments notwithstanding, the Indian economy will likely remain cash-dependent for many years to come, at least that's what the automated teller machine makers and cash logistics companies are betting on. After growing at over 20 per cent for most of 2020, currency in circulation growth fell to 8.5 per cent as of October 29 this year, shows data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The reason for the steep rise in currency last year was the uncertainties related to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, where people preferred to hoard cash to meet exigencies.
'The Indian economy and the Indian financial sector today remain resilient and much better placed.'
Ask your bank to save for you. Plan your taxes. Reward yourself for your addictions... Chartered accountant Shreya Jaiswal's 10 ways to make more money this year.
While mobile wallets are still busy exploring the multiple facets of interoperability, experts believe that bringing in new customers would be costly affair and the numbers of new wallet users might not see a major hike anytime soon.
Nandan Nilekani talks about moving towards a cashless economy and freedom of Internet, among others
A mobile wallet may offer discounts but allows transactions of limited amounts. And, while a bank app or internet account allows larger transactions, it might be less convenient
For those who are sceptical about using debit or credit cards, even when faced with cash crunch, Adhil Shetty, CEO of BankBazaar.com, lists out a few safe cashless options that can be exercised through mobile phones.
While the tax treatment does legitimise past crypto transactions, there is a possibility that any, or all, private cryptocurrencies will be banned in future.
There is no dearth of political will today to act against corruption and officers should take action against the corrupt, however powerful, without any hesitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
The fundamental issue between banks and fintech would be who will own the customer and who will be the service provider.
To educate customers on the modus operandi of financial fraudsters and share inputs on safe banking habits, banks are now coming up with awareness campaigns aimed at preventing customers from falling into the trap of fraudsters.
The government has notified a host of procedural changes in the GST rules, including levy of interest for wrongful utilisation of ITC and turnover threshold for filing annual returns for the 2021-22 fiscal. The changes were vetted by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council at its meeting last week. With the amendments notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), businesses have also been allowed to make tax payments on the GSTN portal by using IMPS and UPI payment modes.
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