Samsung Wallet Redefines Digital Payments in India with UPI Onboarding, Biometric Authentication, and Tap & Pay Upgrades

Samsung, India’s largest consumer electronics brand, today announced significant innovations to Samsung Wallet - a versatile platform that allows Galaxy users to organize digital keys, payment methods, identification cards and more in one secure application. The breakthrough features are designed to transform how millions of Galaxy users can set up new devices, manage payments and transact digitally. With seamless UPI onboarding as part of device setup, PIN-free biometric authentication, and enhanced Tap & Pay support — including FOREX cards and online card payments — Samsung Wallet is accelerating its mission to become the universal and secure gateway to your digital life.

We are thrilled to introduce these breakthrough innovations to Samsung Wallet. With the new updates, Samsung Wallet is no longer just a digital wallet, it has become a universal and secure gateway for digital payments, travel essentials, identity cards, and digital keys. From the moment users set up their new Galaxy device to the way they pay, transact, and travel, we are removing barriers and redefining convenience, said Madhur Chaturvedi, Senior Director, Services & Apps Business, Samsung India. 

UPI Onboarding Built-In with New Device Setup – Catalysing Rapid Adoption

Samsung is the first Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to enable onboarding of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) accounts through Samsung Wallet as part of the new-device setup experience on Galaxy smartphones. By integrating UPI registration early in the setup journey, users can be payment-ready from the moment they power on their new Galaxy device. This friction-free experience ensures quick and seamless adoption of UPI on Galaxy devices, further boosting digital payments in India and simplifying the path from out-of-box to pay-ready.

Samsung Wallet, Biometric Authentication for UPI — No PIN Needed Every time

Samsung Wallet’s authentication experience has been enhanced with the introduction of biometric verification — device fingerprint and facial recognition — eliminating the need for PIN entry for everyday use. Users will soon be able to access the app and make UPI payments using just their Galaxy device’s fingerprint or face recognition. The upgrade not only streamlines access but also enhances security and convenience, reducing manual input and minimizing friction during payment flows. With this added authentication method, Samsung Wallet makes secure payments as effortless as unlocking your phone.

Online Credit and Debit Card Payments at Key Merchants

Samsung Wallet will soon support direct online usage of stored credit and debit cards across a wide set of key merchants. Users will be able to seamlessly pay for goods and services online using the credit and debit cards safely tokenised in their Samsung Wallet—no need to manually key in card details, making checkout faster and more secure.

FOREX Cards and New Partnerships for Samsung Wallet Tap & Pay

In addition to Samsung Wallet already supporting credit and debit cards from leading banks and card issuers, the digital payments experience is enhanced beyond borders as Samsung Wallet will support FOREX cards for Tap & Pay, powered by WSFx Global Pay Limited, enabling Galaxy users to make seamless international transactions with a simple tap. Additionally, Samsung has onboarded AU Bank cards for Tap & Pay, further expanding its network of banking partners and supported card issuers.

Samsung Wallet & Availability

Samsung Wallet is a versatile platform that allows Galaxy users to organize Digital Keys, Payment methods, Identification cards and more in one secure application. Samsung Wallet features a seamless interface protected by defense-grade security from Samsung Knox. It integrates with the Galaxy ecosystem, providing powerful connectivity and fortified security for users in their everyday lives. The new features will begin rolling out across supported Galaxy devices soon.

Paytm Enables Users to Set Alerts for Upcoming Movies, Get Notified When Tickets Go on Sale

Introduces a new innovative use case which will ensure users never miss out on their favorite movies

Provides alerts as soon as bookings for a movie open anywhere in the city or in any of the selected theatres

Focuses on bringing the best of technology-driven features and strengthen the Paytm Super App

One97 Communications Limited (OCL) that owns the brand Paytm, India’s leading payments and financial services company and the pioneer of QR and mobile payments, continues to bring innovative features for the convenience of users and strengthen the Paytm Super App. The company’s latest feature enables users to set alerts for upcoming movies. This feature makes sure users never miss out on their most anticipated movies with notifications as soon as the ticket sale goes live on Paytm.

The list of upcoming movies across languages in each city can be explored in Paytm’s Movie Tickets section. To set up an alert, users need to select the movie they wish to watch and choose the ‘Set Alert’ option. Once the tickets for the movie go on sale, users will receive a notification. Users can choose to get notified as soon as bookings for a movie open anywhere in their city or in any of the three selected theatres.

Paytm Spokesperson said, “We strive to bring the latest innovative features for our users. Our movie ticketing business has seen immense growth, as it offers a convenient and easy way to book movie tickets online. Now, the latest feature helps users to set alerts for upcoming movies will further enhance user experience so they never miss out on their favourite movies. With value additions like these, we continue to be the go-to destination for booking movie tickets.”

How to set alerts for upcoming movies on the Paytm App:

1. Open the Paytm App and tap on ‘Movie Tickets’
2. Click on ‘Upcoming Movies’
3. Select your favourites from the list and tap on ‘Set Alert’ to get notified once bookings open
4. See all the alerts you have set up by clicking on ‘Manage Alerts’

About Paytm:

Paytm is India's payment Super App offering consumers and merchants most comprehensive payment services. Pioneer of mobile QR payments revolution in India, Paytm’s mission is to bring half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy through technology-led financial services. Paytm enables commerce for small merchants and distributes various financial services offerings to its consumers and merchants in partnership with financial institutions.

Cypherock Raises $1Mn to Build the World’s 1st MPC Based Hardware Wallet

 (L-R) Mr. Rohan Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Cypherock Mr Vipul Saini, Co-founder & CTO 

Startup plans to deploy funds into creating the world’s first hardware wallet without a seed phrase

Cypherock, a hardware wallet startup with a mission to accelerate web3 adoption, has raised $1 million from an array of reputed industry leaders including Consensys Mesh, Infinite Capital, Gnosis, Stefan George (Gnosis), Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), Mahin Gupta (Zebpay & Liminal), OrangeDAO, Prasanna Sankar (Rippling), and Furqan Rydhan (Thirdweb & F Inc) amongst others. The round witnessed participation from esteemed names hailing from the emerging technology industry itself.

Started by Rohan Agarwal and Vipul Saini in 2019, Cypherock is building the world’s first hardware wallet without a seed phrase. Cypherock’s mission is to empower people to be self-sovereign and to have the same peace of mind and control with their crypto and personal data that they have with their savings in bank vaults.

Despite the importance of wallets in web3 expansion, no current wallet solution has addressed the fundamental issue of private key management. Every current crypto wallet provider stores private keys in a singular location, which introduces the risk of a single point of failure. Additionally, wallets today include a seed phrase-based recovery system, which a user typically stores on a piece of paper or a metal sheet, exposing clients’ Crypto to trust issues, hacks, thefts, fire, earthquakes, and other frauds. Cypherock not only mitigates the problem of a single point of failure with private keys, but also removes the requirement of seed phrase backups entirely, reducing the attack surface for crypto holders.

On the fund raise Rohan Agarwal, Founder & CEO of Cypherock affirmed, “We appreciate the support of all investors who believed in our product. The investment increased our team’s confidence and unquestionably contributed to the development of our business, enabling us to grow our operations and launch the product earlier than the scheduled date. Additionally, we are making a concerted effort to expand the demand for our product line and attract clients in India as well as in the international markets.”

“Cypherock offers the most convenient and secure hardware-based multisig wallet. An intuitive way to increase security for your crypto assets.” - Stefan George, Gnosis

Cypherock’s future entails the expansion of wallet capabilities by adding token support and developing native hardware wallet experiences for various protocols. The startup also intends to add value to their customer through NFT support, on/off ramp solutions, further capabilities related to MPC & Multi-Sig support, and other features including making crypto inheritance seamless.

About Cypherock

Cypherock is a web3 security company that is building infrastructure to promote freedom through self-custody. The X1 is a hardware wallet designed by Cypherock that allows individuals to self-custody their crypto and improve crypto security by mitigating any single points of failure in private key management.

Paytm Travel Launches Special Flight Fares for Armed Forces, Students and Senior Citizens for Bookings in Indigo, Go Air, Spicejet, and AirAsia

In addition to the special fares, students can also avail extra baggage of upto 10 kgs

India’s leading digital ecosystem for consumers and merchants (1) Paytm today announced special discounted fares for flight bookings for armed forces personnel, students and senior citizens. The discounts will be available for bookings in IndiGo, Go Air, Spicejet, and AirAsia.

To facilitate ease of booking, the discounts are in the range of 15% to 50% and to bring further convenience, students will also be able to avail extra baggage of up to 10 kgs. The fares come at a considerable discount than the normal prices available and will be in addition to the already existing offers being offered by Paytm and banking service providers.

Paytm users can simply search for flight options after entering their details and discover the applicable discount and offer.

Paytm spokesperson said, “Travel ticketing is an important segment for us and we always aim to facilitate ease of booking for our users and also plan their trip more economically. With our airline partners, we are able to do that for users from the armed forces, students and senior citizen”

Paytm App enables users to book flight, inter-city bus and train tickets. The company has partnerships with all major domestic airlines and is an International Air Transport Association (IATA) accredited travel agent. It has direct integration with over 2,000 bus operators. The platform leverages its transactional and behavioural insights to suggest relevant travel ticketing options to users on the Paytm app. It has innovated in the travel ticketing vertical for customer convenience by launching new products such as a nearby airport feature, EMI-based loans for flight travel, PNR confirmation status and live running status for train travel as well as contactless ticket-buying on buses.

(1) Source: Report titled “The Digital Transformation of Payments and Financial Services in India” dated July 15, 2021, prepared by RedSeer Management Consulting Private Limited.

Dubai-based rise Launches Mobile Wallet App, ‘Xare’, To Deliver One-Click Debit and Credit Card Payment Solutions to Users Across India

rise launches mobile wallet app, 'Xare', to deliver one-click debit and credit card payment solutions to users across India

Share money instantly with your loved ones no matter where you are, without any extra fee, and using just their phone number

07 December 2020, Mumbai, India: rise, a leading Dubai based financial services platform, has launched 'Xare', a revolutionary mobile app that allows users anywhere in India and globally to share (xare) their account and credit with their loved ones without any additional costs. With Xare, users can share funds instantly, whilst maintaining complete control of their finances, and without sharing sensitive information. 

Xare is different from existing wallets or UPI based players in that it does not move money but moves access to the money. Aimed at increasing financial freedom for individuals, Xare enables users to share money online instantly without any fees and using just the recipient's phone number or just creating Xare links which can be used to share with multiple people at the same time.. Indian users do not need a UPI identification or a bank account to transfer funds. Users can simply add their debit or credit card details and share money with their children, friends or family. Xare also empowers individuals to capitalise on their un-used credit card limit by sharing this facility with others. 

Five advantages of Xare:

1. Instant transfer of funds using just a phone number with no extra cost or using a whatsapp link
2. Complete control and transparency over where the money is spent 
3. No bank account or UPI id needed for any transaction 
4. Share debit/credit card details with children and adults for recurring or one-time share 
5. Capitalize on un-used credit card limit

Padmini Gupta, Co-founder and CEO at Xare, said: "We are delighted to launch 'Xare' in India and introduce many of its features as part of our ongoing efforts to revolutionize financial services. We are committed to providing a myriad of options and solutions to those that have historically been ignored by traditional banks. We have designed this app primarily for expat families offering a hassle-free solution to sharing money. With 'Xare' you just need to register using a valid phone number and can then share your debit and credit card with friends and family; it is also possible to make teenagers part of this ecosystem."

"Months into the pandemic, people have become more cautious about using cash. Digital payments have become the 'new normal'. Our aim is to give customers access to an innovative new payment method that also enables users to give their tribe credit. While we talk about Xare's potential to disrupt several key markets – remittances or family sharing or expense accounts - nothing is more thrilling then the idea that our app allows anyone to be a bank to their tribe, anytime, anywhere."

Still in its beta phase, Xare will be available for online use in India, and globally by early December through the Google Play Store.

Registration takes less than 30 seconds and requires only a valid phone number. Users just need to select a contact from their phone to share their card, and can set daily or monthly limits, and even expiry dates. The app's innovative security system means that card details are never seen by the beneficiary and are not stored by Xare centrally, so they cannot be hacked or compromised. Once issued with a Xare card, beneficiaries can use their card in thousands of stores to purchase more than two billion products globally.

Milind Singh, Co-founder of Xare, commented: "We firmly believe that Xare has the potential to make banking fairer and more humane, and we cannot wait to share our innovative solution with those that can most benefit from it. Moreover, Indian customers are increasingly choosing to purchase goods and services online, driving e-commerce to reach an estimated $225 billion by 2022 - and platforms such as Xare can help drive this convenience. Another factor is that in our country, credit cards are still considered a product for the comfortable sections of the society and not everyone can avail of its benefits. With Xare, our aim is to provide financial services that benefit the masses. The launch of Xare represents an incredibly exciting time for the financial services sector in India, and globally."

About rise – the company behind Xare

rise democratizes access to essential financial services for millions of expatriate workers globally.

Privately founded in 2017, rise is a new age financial services platform that creates fit-for-purpose financial products based on a deep understanding of overseas workers and extensive experience in serving and understanding the GCC market. 

To date, Rise has helped tens of thousands of modest-income workers gain access to bank accounts, remit money globally, understand their financial health, set financial goals and gain access to credit. Our products have been developed specifically to provide overseas workers with a superior alternative to conventional banking services, and to empower expatriates with increased transparency and control over their own finances. We partner with leading financial service institutions regionally and globally, to build financial products that matter, using our AI driven distribution platforms to bring these products to low income expatriate workers everywhere. For more information about rise, visit www.gorise.co

Digital Wallets: Types, Ideas and Future Implications

Everything has gone digital, if something hasn’t yet, it will soon. 

This is not even an understatement. Entire businesses, organizations and services have gone digital. As we are galloping toward a digital world, there are very few things that are left untouched by this phenomenon of digitization.

Digital wallet payment solutions are becoming extremely common. They are quick, easy and also secure. This has led to an era of digital wallets or e-wallets. Most of us use them on a daily basis and sometimes, there are situations where we can’t get by without them. 

Let’s take a technological deep dive and see their types, pros, cons and future implications.

What is an e-wallet?

A digital wallet or as sometimes called e-wallet is an umbrella term for a range of technologies that let you pay for things. Not only that, it stores your tickets, passes and gift cards.

An app, software, card or any other technology that you can use to make transactions without needing cash is a digital wallet. E-wallets are usually used for wallets that help in making online payments. Here, we will use them interchangeably.

How do they work?

Imagine a digital version of your regular wallet. One that allows you to make e-payments from a digital service, without compromising the security of your actual financial information. 

A digital has two components:

1.Software component: This provides security and encrypts the information stored in the wallet and the transaction that is being conducted.

2.Database component: This stores user-information and details like shipping address, billing address, payment method, etc.

An electronic payment works with an application installed on the user’s smartphone. This is why wallet app development is supremely important to understand the process. The functionality of wallets, further, depends on the delivery technology or the type of wallet in question.

Types of E-wallets

There are three types of digital or e-wallets depending on the delivery technology.

1. Closed wallets: A company that sells products or services can build a closed wallet for its customers. The money stored in this type of wallet can be used to transact with only that company which has issued the wallet. These wallets are online accounts where the money of refunds, cancellations, returns or gift cards are stored. Some companies earn interest on such deposits. One example can be that of Walmart pay.
2. Semi-closed wallets: Even though the coverage area of such wallets is rather restricted, these are still prevalent in the system. This is because they can be used to transact online and offline and buy anything. This ranges from goods, services, payment of fees, to premiums, provided the merchants have a contract or agreement with the issuer to accept the payments. 
3. Open Wallets: These wallets can only be issued by banks or non-banking institutes if partnered banks. These wallets serve a dual purpose of performing all the transactions of semi-closed wallets plus withdrawing cash at ATMs or banks and transfer funds.
   

Pros of E-wallets

• These wallets are smarter than regular wallets. Not only do they provide the best transactional experience but they also help you organize your finances. Paying freelancers with electronic money is the best way of payment as they usually work online. 
• They are very easy to operate. The users can very swiftly and easily pay for the service or product in the online store. There is no need to remember all the card details as they can be saved online.
• They are also secure. The data in digital wallets is encrypted. The transactions are secure and no third party or hackers can easily steal anything. 
• These are more affordable as well. E-payments can be done sitting at home and therefore eliminates the need for going to the bank to make transfers. This also means that you don’t have to pay service charges, overdraft fees and can only pay a minimum fee on a premium card.
  

Cons of E-wallets

• Digital technologies are still misunderstood and considered riskier than regular payment methods. Not all consumers as well sellers have such contactless payment methods. Basically, you can’t find them everywhere you go, yet.  
• Most of the peer to peer payment apps require mandatory Internet access which is not available everywhere. This con will soon be gone as the internet is slowly becoming omnipresent.

Future of the Digital Wallets

According to research conducted by Juniper Research, cited by the Wall Street Journal on November 13, the global number of digital wallet users could be doubled by the year 2020. 

140 million people used Apple pay as a digital wallet in the year 2018, this number will increase to 227 million making it the most popular digital wallet in the world.

Google Pay is estimated to reach 100 million users in 2020, up from 39 million users in 2018. 

Samsung Pay, on the other hand, is predicted to also have 100 million users in 2020 which was 51 million in the year 2018.

The total transaction value in the digital payment sector reached US$4137.523 billion in the year 2019. 

This value is projected to show an annual growth rate of 12.8%, which will result in the total amount of US$6,699.201 billion by the year 2023. 

The market is led by Digital Commerce with a total transaction value of US$3,391. 727 billion in 2019. 

As reported by Statista, the number of mobile proximity payment users stood at 0.95 billion worldwide in the year 2019 and is estimated to surpass 1 billion users in 2020.

The Final Say

Digital wallets or e-wallets let you perform a multitude of tasks and not just make payments. Users can make purchases from e-commerce websites, pay utility bills like electricity, prepaid recharge, book event tickets, book travel tickets, order food online and even purchase mutual funds and insurance.

Every party, whether it's the buyer, seller benefits from the protection and convenience. Merchants benefit because they're more protected against fraud and they sell more products, faster. While consumers get safe and fast transactions that so they don’t queue up in the billing lines. 

The future is mobile, and well, so is the present!

Facebook's Digital Wallet Calibra Won't Launch in India

This week, in a transformational shift from a social network to a blockchain-led financial entity, Facebook unveiled its much ambitious plan with Libra cryptocurrency and Calibra digital wallet in center of everything. In its audacious plan, Facebook is aiming to use Libra to empower more than 1.7 billion people around the world who currently do not have a bank account and transform financial services across the world.

When Facebook first revealed its cryptocurrency plan in late last year, it was said that the its cryptocurrency will let users transfer money on WhatsApp messaging app and India will be first remittances market Facebook will be focusing at. However, in a reply to queries from TechCrunch, a Calibra spokesperson said that the digital wallet will not be rolling out to a number of markets that have taken a stand against cryptocurrency, or are sanctioned by the United States.

“The Libra Blockchain will be global, but it will be up to custodial wallet providers to determine where they will and will not operate. Calibra won’t be available in U.S.-sanctioned countries or countries that ban cryptocurrencies,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Currently, India along with China and North Korea do not allow trading of cyptocurrencies.

But this has also led to confusion over clear picture of Facebook's India strategy as WhatsApp already offers a person-to-person (P2P) payments service in India called WhatsApp Pay. In fact, India is the only market where WhatsApp currently offers its payments service.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told TechCrunch that Facebook is committed to the efforts that it has made on WhatsApp Pay, which is built on top of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a payments infrastructure backed by Indian government which is also the foundation of Google's G Pay and Amazon's 'Amazon Pay' payment apps in India and is driving hundreds of millions of financial transactions in the nation each month.

Data released by government-owned National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), who has developed UPI, revealed that the total UPI transactions reached 799.54 million in March 2019.

Currently, WhatsApp’s payments service is available to one million users in India and the messaging app is working with the government for a nationwide roll-out.

Singapore-based Startup to Launch P2P Payment Device which it Claims to End Currency Notes, Coins, ATMs, Mobile Payments

Future Age Solutions (FAS), a Singapore-based disruptive products innovation startup, is about to launch an innovative product called Digital Wallet, a payment device enabling peer-to-peer payments that works without Internet, reaching even the remotest areas of the world.

The Digital Wallets will eliminate or minimize the needs of worldwide printing of currency notes, minting of coins, ATMs, and Internet based phone payment options. In addition, worldwide counterfeit currency business will come to an end, says Vinod Khillan, Vice President FAS.

The Digital Wallets will start rolling out in stages worldwide starting 2019.

On an average, 10% of the world economy is transacted in cash mainly for small payments through physical wallets. The idea of this invention is to replace the physical wallets by Digital Wallets.

Digital Wallet, a handheld slim and tiny biometric device (in picture above) that works on fingerprint authentication, makes payments or transactions highly safe and secure in encrypted mode. Moreover, the total isolated private network, encrypted intercommunication and total isolation from Internet connectivity makes the digital wallet extremely safe, secure and immune to hacking and data theft.

The Product "System For Enabling Payment Without The Internet" International Patent Application Under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Covering 152 Countries Has Been Filed At World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

The Digital Wallet functions on proprietary systems like processor, operating system, Unique Embedded Text Script and payment processing software application inventions by an Indian origin inventor and founder of FAS, Raj Tore.

The Digital Wallet is a currency specific product which will cover all 180 legal tender currencies of the world within the geographic territories of the currencies. FAS’s US subsidiary corporation, Digital Cash Inc, will setup worldwide currency specific subsidiaries to enable Digital Wallets’ transactions.

~ Business Wire India Feed (with addition of 5th Paragraph from dcashinc.com)

Zomato to Launch its Own Digital Payment Wallet in Next 2 Months - Report

Gurgaon-based online restaurant discovery and food delivery firm Zomato is in process of launching its very own digital payments and mobile wallet solution in order to prevent its users going out of its ecosystem while making payments online, reported Business Standard.

Zomato, which currently has digital wallets like PayTM and Mobikwik in its mode of payments, is building its own digital wallet since early of this year when it raised funding from Alibaba's Ant Financial, said the report citing sources.

The company is likely to roll out its digital payments solution in the next two months.

According to the report, the primary reason Zomato is entering into the payments segment is to increase customer retention and predictability of orders and spends.

Initially, Zomato will launch its payment service as a captive wallet service, which is for adding money and spending on ordering food and dine-in over the Zomato app. And, as its adoption rises the company will eventually made the wallet operable outside Zomato app for making payments to other services.

Zomato may give exclusive offers and cash-backs through its own wallet, integrated with its loyalty programmes like Zomato Gold and Zomato Piggybank. The company could also look at tapping its large base of partners to drive in-restaurant digital payments via its own app, extending benefits it offers for online orders to offline ones as well, the Business Standard report further added.

With this, Zomato will follow the likes of Ola, Flipkart and Amazon, which too have their own payment arm Ola Money, PhonePe and Amazon Pay respectively.

Zomato's biggest competitor in India, Swiggy, has already built its own captive wallet Swiggy Money.

Moreover, it will also create a tug of war situation in Indian digital payment space with almost every dotcom firm having its own digital wallet beside having local payment players like PayTM and Mobikwik. Moreover, global companies like Amazon Pay, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, Google Pay and most recently Caller ID app TrueCaller also jumping into the online payment services will turn the competition more havoc.

The online payment competition is so dramatic in India that within just a couple of weeks both PayTm and Amazon have infused massive money in to their respective payment businesses. While Paytm raised $300 million from billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Amazon too has invested about $80 million into its Indian payment unit of Amazon Pay.

What The World Could Learn From India's eWallets

When asked who is sitting at the forefront of financial innovation, very few are likely to immediately think of India. However, where eWallets are concerned, India’s adoption and usage of these mobile methods of storing currency is certainly work taking note of. Until fairly recently, India’s monetary transactions were pretty much entirely done by cash and that included 85% of wages to workers. However, recent years have seen an improvement for India, with more and more mobile wallets and technologically advanced methods of payment coming into play due to the demonetisation sweeping across the country. Despite the cause for this change, India still sits at the forefront of the mobile wallet industry and we’re exploring a little deeper below.

What Is An eWallet?

If you ever hear the words ‘eWallet’ or ‘digital wallet’, then it’s likely that whoever is speaking is referring a digital method of storage for our money. These wallets are stored on our computers or, more commonly, on mobile devices and can be topped up with funds that are then used to buy goods and services online. eWallets often give you the opportunity to store multiple credit cards or bank account numbers in a single place, which ultimately makes payments much easier overall. Once verified, you no longer need to enter any of your bank or credit card details to make a payment. It’s convenient, secure and ultimately makes payments much more efficient online.

India’s Position At The Forefront

If there were ever a country to sit at the forefront of eWallets, India wouldn’t likely be a consideration but the simple fact of the matter is that it is. India’s adoption of mobile wallets has proven to be faster than even that of the UK, USA or China, which is quite an accomplishment for a country with very minimal FinTech infrastructure prior to the shift. Transactions with eWallets sat at INR 24bn in 2013, but over the following four years, skyrocketed to INR 955bn by 2017 which is quite the jump if we do say so ourselves. In fact, there were even predictions that it could reach an incredible 1 trillion by the end of 2018! They may have been introduced for demonetisation purposes, but eWallets in India have taken on a life of their own as a method of payment for all.

Why eWallets?

The demonetization move started in 2016 by Narendra Modi’s government was undoubtedly a huge part of the eWallet adoption. The cash-crunch saw India declare that all ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series would become invalid and impossible to spend in return for new notes. This demonetization was in order to crack down on fraud and counterfeit cash that had been used for illegal purposes, but the disruption caused by this sudden announcement led consumers to ridding themselves of cash completely and opting for mobile wallets instead. The use of these eWallets skyrocketed, and has become one of the most popular methods of payment in India as a result.

What Could The World Learn?

There’s no denying that India has taken on this technology with open arms and rightly so. The need for a more secure and stable form of payment to settle the financial unrest that came as a result of demonetisation led to mobile payments becoming the chosen method, not least because the government were encouraging digital forms of payment to further protect the country’s industry from fraud and terrorism. From retail stores accepting eWallet payments as standard from as early as July 2016, to the fact that even Amazon has started up its own eWallet in India, there’s no denying that they have become popular, though whether or not demonetisation as a whole has worked is still up for debate.

For other countries, however, India’s use of mobile wallets isn’t something to be overlooked. For banks and other financial institutions looking for ways to promote digital payments on a mass scale, India’s success is a good place to start looking. While demonetisation may not necessarily be the best way to go about it, it’s certainly proven effective on that front! However, on a broader scale, we can definitely see that eWallet use could promote simpler regulation, improved security of payments by reducing the need for detail entry online and when coupled with other security measures like biometric verification (fingerprints, facial recognition etc.) these powerful countries could easily regain control over the money circulating in their countries.

Whether demonetisation has proven successful in India is still a hot topic amongst politicians and consumers alike, but there’s simply no denying that it’s promotion of digital and mobile wallets has changed the financial industry completely. What was once just a method of coping with a changing economy has become a standard method of payment across much of the country, and there’s no denying that other global leaders and financial institutions can certainly learn a thing or two about security and efficiency for their citizens and customers.

What The World Could Learn From India's eWallets

When asked who is sitting at the forefront of financial innovation, very few are likely to immediately think of India. However, where eWallets are concerned, India’s adoption and usage of these mobile methods of storing currency is certainly work taking note of. Until fairly recently, India’s monetary transactions were pretty much entirely done by cash and that included 85% of wages to workers. However, recent years have seen an improvement for India, with more and more mobile wallets and technologically advanced methods of payment coming into play due to the demonetisation sweeping across the country. Despite the cause for this change, India still sits at the forefront of the mobile wallet industry and we’re exploring a little deeper below.

What Is An eWallet?

If you ever hear the words ‘eWallet’ or ‘digital wallet’, then it’s likely that whoever is speaking is referring a digital method of storage for our money. These wallets are stored on our computers or, more commonly, on mobile devices and can be topped up with funds that are then used to buy goods and services online. eWallets often give you the opportunity to store multiple credit cards or bank account numbers in a single place, which ultimately makes payments much easier overall. Once verified, you no longer need to enter any of your bank or credit card details to make a payment. It’s convenient, secure and ultimately makes payments much more efficient online.

India’s Position At The Forefront

If there were ever a country to sit at the forefront of eWallets, India wouldn’t likely be a consideration but the simple fact of the matter is that it is. India’s adoption of mobile wallets has proven to be faster than even that of the UK, USA or China, which is quite an accomplishment for a country with very minimal FinTech infrastructure prior to the shift. Transactions with eWallets sat at INR 24bn in 2013, but over the following four years, skyrocketed to INR 955bn by 2017 which is quite the jump if we do say so ourselves. In fact, there were even predictions that it could reach an incredible 1 trillion by the end of 2018! They may have been introduced for demonetisation purposes, but eWallets in India have taken on a life of their own as a method of payment for all.

Why eWallets?

The demonetization move started in 2016 by Narendra Modi’s government was undoubtedly a huge part of the eWallet adoption. The cash-crunch saw India declare that all ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series would become invalid and impossible to spend in return for new notes. This demonetization was in order to crack down on fraud and counterfeit cash that had been used for illegal purposes, but the disruption caused by this sudden announcement led consumers to ridding themselves of cash completely and opting for mobile wallets instead. The use of these eWallets skyrocketed, and has become one of the most popular methods of payment in India as a result.

What Could The World Learn?

There’s no denying that India has taken on this technology with open arms and rightly so. The need for a more secure and stable form of payment to settle the financial unrest that came as a result of demonetisation led to mobile payments becoming the chosen method, not least because the government were encouraging digital forms of payment to further protect the country’s industry from fraud and terrorism. From retail stores accepting eWallet payments as standard from as early as July 2016, to the fact that even Amazon has started up its own eWallet in India, there’s no denying that they have become popular, though whether or not demonetisation as a whole has worked is still up for debate.

For other countries, however, India’s use of mobile wallets isn’t something to be overlooked. For banks and other financial institutions looking for ways to promote digital payments on a mass scale, India’s success is a good place to start looking. While demonetisation may not necessarily be the best way to go about it, it’s certainly proven effective on that front! However, on a broader scale, we can definitely see that eWallet use could promote simpler regulation, improved security of payments by reducing the need for detail entry online and when coupled with other security measures like biometric verification (fingerprints, facial recognition etc.) these powerful countries could easily regain control over the money circulating in their countries.

Whether demonetisation has proven successful in India is still a hot topic amongst politicians and consumers alike, but there’s simply no denying that it’s promotion of digital and mobile wallets has changed the financial industry completely. What was once just a method of coping with a changing economy has become a standard method of payment across much of the country, and there’s no denying that other global leaders and financial institutions can certainly learn a thing or two about security and efficiency for their citizens and customers.

BSNL With MobiKwik Launches 'BSNL Wallet' - India's Largest Wallet By Telecom Co.

Indian state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has unveiled its digital wallet (mobile payment App) in partnership with MobiKwik to enable one-tap bill payment for its over 100 million subscribers.

The wallet has been developed and issued by MobiKwik on behalf of BSNL. The subscribers will be able to use the digital wallet at over 1.5 million merchants across India. The app - BSNL Wallet can be downloaded from here.

Introducing #BSNLWallet
Enabling masses in #MovingForward with #DigitalIndia
Download Now - https://t.co/pUJQfxxrEF@BSNLCorporate pic.twitter.com/iPdCHzjVS4

— MobiKwik (@MobiKwik) August 18, 2017

The digital wallet is in line with the telecom corporation’s intent to take the reach of digital payments to semi-urban and rural India, a BSNL statement said.

BSNL says that with the app its customers will have a new way to recharge their phone, pay their milkman, domestic help, groceries, book bus and train tickets.

To recall, in July 2015 BSNL had launched another similar mobile wallet app called SpeedPay, which the company could have improvised and enhanced further instead of launching a new mobile wallet altogether.

Earlier this month, MobiKwik Co-founder Upasana Taku did hinted out about this progress when she said in a statement that Mobikwik is becoming India's first debit plus credit wallet, where people could have exclusive credit lines, credit cards and EMI cards mapped through the app.

Launching the digital wallet, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said, "With this co-branded wallet, the ease of payment will be extended to all the customers while equally strengthening financial inclusion in the rural hinterlands, which often get neglected".

BSNL chairman Anupam Srivastava said the partnership will ensure that all its 100 million customers are able to "seamlessly and conveniently transact and make mobile and other financial payments through the co-branded MobiKwik wallet". Srivastava said the wallet will work on both smartphone and feature phones.

BSNL claimed that with over 1.5 million merchants on the network, this is India’s largest wallet by any telecom company.

The alliance with BSNL will "empower masses in India with access to dependable internet connectivity and digital payments", Bipin Preet Singh, founder and CEO of MobiKwik said. The BSNL wallet will enable people to pay bills, recharge their phone connections and pay for their daily purchases, he added.

Why Mobile Wallets are Worried with the RBI Norms?

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines for prepaid payment instrument (PPI) licence holders in March. Mobile wallet companies expressed their concerns to RBI officials over the proposed guidelines for the sector, in their formal feedback to the regulator on them. One of the issues included the know your customer (KYC) norms.

The Payment Council of India and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) had arranged a meeting in which they gave out feedback on the proposed norms. Some clarifications were sought on certain clauses in the meeting, while the companies discussed issues around KYC as the norms could be an overkill for small transactions.

As per the KYC norms, companies will have to convert existing wallets without complete KYC to full KYC compliant wallets within a period of 60 days from the date of issue. If they fail to do so, no further credit will be allowed into these wallets. Currently, e-wallets and other such prepaid payment instruments can only hold up to Rs 20,000 per user with minimum KYC.

The main request given by the companies in their feedback to the RBI was that minimum KYC be retained or the deadline for implementing full KYC be extended to 18-24 months. The reason being that telecom companies would have done Aadhaar linking of mobile numbers, which will be useful to mobile wallets to do full KYC for all their clients. They also said that KYC norms will increase customer acquisition costs for them and a simple process will get complicated. The other request to RBI was to publish the interoperability guidelines for wallets.

Other norms in which they objected include:

• Assurance of a separate login provided for the the PPI account by mobile wallet companies, ensuring that access to PPI is not made part of access to other services offered by the issuer or its associate/parent/group company etc.


• Requirement to have a minimum net worth of Rs 25 crore, as compared to the existing minimum of Rs 1 crore.


• Necessary agreement requirement of wallet services with the e-commerce platforms and payment gateways rather than individual merchants. The companies will have to submit the list of merchants it hosts to the bank and timely update it.

PPIs are currently seeing monthly transactions of Rs 6,000 crore, of which about Rs 4,000 crore is from money transfers while corporate solutions such as smart cards for expense management constitute about Rs 500 crore, as per people with knowledge of the matter. Ecommerce giant Amazon recently received a wallet licence from RBI.

Amazon Launching Digital Wallet in India

Earlier this this year, Amazon stated that its objective is to make India its second-biggest market in the world after the US. Realizing this the world's biggest e-commerce firm has just secured a license to launch a digital wallet, which levels the playing field with two of its regional e-commerce competitors, Flipkart and Paytm, both of whom already have digital wallets of their own.

In March, Flipkart had launched an online wallet -- Flipkart Money, to counter Alibaba-backed Paytm and Snapdeal's Freecharge. And now that Snapdeal is close to get acquired by Flipkart, tha later will get an edge in terms of market share that it will get after getting Freecharge post Snapdeal acquisition.

Besides Flipkart Money, the company also has one more e-wallet called PhonePe which it acquired last year. And post recent funding of $1.4 billion, Flipkart had already proposed to invest major part of this money, including with Microsoft, in PhonePe and fintech considering opportunities in online money transfer segment.

Amazon's soon-to-be-release digital wallet has gotten a license at a time when there is regulatory uncertainty around wallets in India as the Reserve Bank of India has a consultation which appears to be enforcing fairly stringent norms on the operations of wallets. One of a requirement worth noting is that a wallet company need to submit a list of all its merchant partners to the escrow bank.

Amazon knows the importance of India, and has already poured 5 billion into the market, and launched Amazon Prime and Amazon Video. And if reports are to be believed India might soon see Amazon’s brick and mortar stores, as the retail giant recently asked for Indian’s government’s approval to undertake retail trading of food products.

E-commerce players are increasing their focus on digital payments oe E-Wallets with Amazon acquisition of payments platform Emvantage in 2016, while Snapdeal bought Freecharge in 2015. Others like cab aggregator services Ola, too, launched its own wallet -- Ola Money, last year.