India's Mobile Payment Forum Calls for Multilingual, Speech-based Payment Apps including UPI

Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI), India's umbrella organisation responsible for deploying mobile payments in India, has called for developing multilingual and speech based payment apps. The forum led by IIT-Madras faculty has made recommendation to India's central bank to include features in payment apps such as customer support and grievance redressal in multiple Indian languages in order to enable financial inclusion i.e making digital payments accessible to all individuals and businesses at affordable costs.

MPFI has submitted these recommendations to Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Committee, on the deepening of digital payments.

Notably, MPFI has played a key role in developing inter-operability and security standards for India's popular fund transferring service 'Immediate Payment Service' (IMPS) and later the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which was built using IMPS only.

Other key recommendations of the MPFI include increasing women consumers and using voice-based features in Mobile Apps. The positioning of mobile internet, especially towards payments, may need judicious advertising within the social and cultural context.

In its recommendations, MPFI emphasize that presence of regional languages is a crucial component towards achieving inclusiveness and increase the help of mobile and digital payments in rural India.

Established in 2006, MPFI is a joint initiative of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and Rural Technology Business Incubator of IIT Madras. With its latest recommendations, MPFI aims to enable mobile payments, and mobile financial services for everyone in India through secure, efficient and low cost transactions.

For strengthening the digital payments space and adding confidence and trust in the Indian consumer, the MPFI recommendations considered three broad perspectives, which include:

(i) User and Merchant perspective

(ii) Regulation, methods and processes

(iii). Standards for transactions, via channels like SMS.

Chairman of MPFI, Prof. Gaurav Raina, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, said in a statement, "Most MPFI members feel there is still much to be done to increase awareness for the different modes of digital payments among users and merchants, and also about best practices for user's security."

"The MPFI can help by creating videos in different official languages to spread awareness on digital payments. These videos can then be used by all stakeholders in the ecosystem," he said.

Earlier this month, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its vision document for Payment and Settlement Systems 'Vision 2021' detailing RBI’s outlook for the payments space.

The Vision 2021 document lays down 36 specific action points to be adopted during 2019-2021 to improve all aspects of payment systems including innovation in feature phone and USSD-based payments services, internal ombudsman (independent & impartial investigator for consumer complaints) for digital payments, geo-tagging of payment system touch points, enhancing contactless and tokenisation technology, national settlement services for card schemes and increasing adoption of distributed ledger technologies aka Blockchain.

Source - India Today, Times of India

MobiKwik Offers Instant Life Insurance for Rs. 20 on Its App

MobiKwik, India’s largest digital financial services platform, today announced the launch of digital life insurance on its app to its users. MobiKwik in association with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has rolled out first-of-its-kind group micro insurance product. The offering begins with a life cover of Rs. 1 lakh available for a monthly premium as low as Rs. 20/-.

This is the second big announcement by MobiKwik in the digital insurance space, post the launch of accidental insurance in November 2018. The users have an option to choose from three sum assured policies: Rs. 1 lakh, 1.5 lakhs and 2 lakhs, available against monthly premiums of Rs. 20/-, 30/- and 40/- respectively.

Life insurance can be digitally purchased on the MobiKwik app, via a paperless, 2-step process that takes 10 seconds and the policy is issued instantly. MobiKwik will be extending its base of insurance providers in this category and is exploring associations with other leading insurance providers. Mobikwik will be adding curated products based on customer profile and will offer personalised products rather than ‘one size fits all’.

ommenting on the launch, Ms. Upasana Taku, Co-founder and Director, MobiKwik said, “Over the past 9 years, Mobikwik has designed products that are aimed at transforming the financial landscape and driving financial inclusion in India. Our foray into the life insurance category is in line with our vision to bring about an impactful change in the way financial services are distributed in India. The market is huge and expected to grow rapidly. As per a recent report by ASSOCHAM released in partnership with a research firm called APAS, the insurance industry in India is expected to reach USD 280 billion by 2020. The report also states that life insurance industry in the country is expected to grow by 12-15 percent annually for the next three to five years. Our innovative, curated offerings in the insurance domain aim to simplify the process of buying insurance and also make it affordable to a totally untapped set of customers.”

Added Ms. Taku, “Life insurance is very important for each and every individual. However, in India, it is an extremely under-penetrated category. With these micro insurance products and other personalised offerings in the future, we are confident of disrupting the life insurance market. We are digitally offering life insurance in association with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, one of the renowned names in this domain. We intend to tap the mass market and emerging affluent customer base that has been ignored by the traditional banks and insurance providers, owing to the high distribution costs. We are also trying to address the challenges around product relevance for the customer, because of standard financial and health underwriting. MobiKwik will lead the way in driving adoption of life insurance products in the real India with its customized portfolio, intelligently designed to cater to the customers’ requirements. Digital offering is the key here as we are able to offer insurance products to millions of our users, irrespective of location, on our app. We envision a day when majority of India will have a life insurance policy.”

Mr. Puneet Nanda, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company said, “We are delighted to have associated with MobiKwik, one of India’s largest digital mobile wallet. The simple paperless on-boarding process paves the way for MobiKwik’s large user base to purchase life insurance. Simplicity, we believe is the biggest innovation in the life insurance industry. Customer centricity is the core philosophy of both organisations and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

MobiKwik user is suggested an appropriate insurance product, selected basis existing profile of the customer, advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence algorithm. The company had recently launched the accidental insurance product which has received a great response from its user base. It offers accidental insurance of Rs. 1 lakh for a year for as low as Rs. 20/-.

MobiKwik is India’s leading digital financial services platform, leveraging a sophisticated product and merchant acquisition capabilities. It is also the second largest mobile wallet player in India. It has a network of over 3 million direct merchants, 140+ billers and over 107 million users. It has ventured into credit with the launch of its instant credit product called ‘Boost’. MobiKwik has also announced its foray into wealth management with 100% acquisition of Clearfunds, one of India’s leading new age wealth management platforms.

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the company has raised four rounds of funding from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, MediaTek, GMO Payment Gateway, Cisco Investments Net1 and Bajaj Finance. The company has offices across many cities in India including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. It aspires to be the largest source of digital transactions in India and has a vision of enabling a billion Indians with one tap access to digital payments, loans, insurance and investments, by 2022.

MobiKwik is second largest mobile wallet player in India and has a network of over 3 million direct merchants, 140+ billers and over 107 million users. It has ventured into credit with the launch of its instant credit product called ‘Boost’. MobiKwik has also announced its foray into wealth management with 100% acquisition of Clearfunds, one of India’s leading new age wealth management platforms.

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the company has raised four rounds of funding from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, MediaTek, GMO Payment Gateway, Cisco Investments Net1 and Bajaj Finance. The company has offices across many cities in India including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. It aspires to be the largest source of digital transactions in India and has a vision of enabling a billion Indians with one tap access to digital payments, loans, insurance and investments, by 2022.

Source - Feed via Business Wire India

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.

Google To Take On PayTM; Launches 'Tez' Mobile Payment App in India

A while back, we reported how there were many speculations going round the tech world about how search giant Google was contemplating on launching its very own UPI based digital payment service for the Indian market. And now, the speculations have come true as yesterday Google finally unveiled Tez, its free mobile wallet for India.

Whether it is sending money home to your family or splitting money among friends for a dinner party, Tez will let you do it all in a jiffy. Using the app, users can pay for goods securely in physical stores and online. The app links users phone directly to their bank accounts. What makes Tez standout from its competitors is the Audio QR feature, which lets users use ultrasonic sounds to exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.

Tez can be considered Google's effort towards replacing cash transactions in India and becoming a more integral part of how people pay for utilities, using their smartphones. The search giant has collaborated with several major banks in the country by taking the way of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) — a single window mobile payment system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with backing from the Indian government.

During the launch, Google also revealed that phones coming to the market from Lava, Micromax, Nokia and Panasonic will soon come with Tez preloaded.

Speaking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson shared that Google has confirmed to him that payments made and taken using UPI will be free for both consumers and small merchants. It is currently unclear on how Google is considering on keeping this going as tech giant brings on the functionality to upload cards to the Tez wallet. For the uninitiated, card usage comes with a transaction fee.

While Google's Tez might pose the maximum threat to India's homegrown numero uno payments app PayTM the two apps are quite different from one another. Tez like PayTM isn't a mobile wallet, where money is stored in the app and needs to be topped up in order to be used; it’s more on the lines of how Apple’s Wallet functions as it also links users phone directly with their bank accounts to let them use their phone as a way to deduct payments from those accounts.

Google's AQR is its own proprietary technology. This is the first time the tech giant has used the technology for payments, although it has used ultrasonic sound for transferring information between devices before. Lisnr and Chirp are some of other startups that have used audio-based “codes” to transfer payments and other data before Google's Tez.

While Tez is currently being launched only in India, Google has also trademarked the service's name in other Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. This means, there might be a possibility of expanding the service to other regions.

Tez is being launched on both, iOS and Android.

Google To Take On PayTM; Launches 'Tez' Mobile Payment App in India

A while back, we reported how there were many speculations going round the tech world about how search giant Google was contemplating on launching its very own UPI based digital payment service for the Indian market. And now, the speculations have come true as yesterday Google finally unveiled Tez, its free mobile wallet for India.

Whether it is sending money home to your family or splitting money among friends for a dinner party, Tez will let you do it all in a jiffy. Using the app, users can pay for goods securely in physical stores and online. The app links users phone directly to their bank accounts. What makes Tez standout from its competitors is the Audio QR feature, which lets users use ultrasonic sounds to exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.

Tez can be considered Google's effort towards replacing cash transactions in India and becoming a more integral part of how people pay for utilities, using their smartphones. The search giant has collaborated with several major banks in the country by taking the way of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) — a single window mobile payment system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with backing from the Indian government.

During the launch, Google also revealed that phones coming to the market from Lava, Micromax, Nokia and Panasonic will soon come with Tez preloaded.

Speaking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson shared that Google has confirmed to him that payments made and taken using UPI will be free for both consumers and small merchants. It is currently unclear on how Google is considering on keeping this going as tech giant brings on the functionality to upload cards to the Tez wallet. For the uninitiated, card usage comes with a transaction fee.

While Google's Tez might pose the maximum threat to India's homegrown numero uno payments app PayTM the two apps are quite different from one another. Tez like PayTM isn't a mobile wallet, where money is stored in the app and needs to be topped up in order to be used; it’s more on the lines of how Apple’s Wallet functions as it also links users phone directly with their bank accounts to let them use their phone as a way to deduct payments from those accounts.

Google's AQR is its own proprietary technology. This is the first time the tech giant has used the technology for payments, although it has used ultrasonic sound for transferring information between devices before. Lisnr and Chirp are some of other startups that have used audio-based “codes” to transfer payments and other data before Google's Tez.

While Tez is currently being launched only in India, Google has also trademarked the service's name in other Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. This means, there might be a possibility of expanding the service to other regions.

Tez is being launched on both, iOS and Android.