Launch of Unified Payments Interface sparks a debate on whether it will hit existing payment apps

India’s payment ecosystem has got a new boost in the form of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) to make digital payments and peer-to-peer money transfers. The question that now arises is, will it swallow up existing payments apps? Or will it encourage more consumers to venture into the market? With its focus on cleaning up the black economy, the government and the Reserve Bank of India launched the UPI through the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Thursday with 21 banks to make hasslefree money transfers. The UPI mobile application allows a user to send money to any bank account through your mobile phone without entering debit/credit card details, netbanking/wallet password or even knowing the recipient’s bank account number. “UPI will be an enabler to existing wallets and in fact can be used to fund the wallets,” said Dilip Asbe, chief operating officer, NPCI. “We have not got wallets under UPI as it is designed for banks for now. Also, wallets offer facilities beyond money transfer.” So are mobile wallets under threat? According to companies, the ecosystem is large enough for all players to co-exist. At present, nearly 90% of transactions are cash based in India. “I don’t think it will have any negative impact on the mobile wallet ecosystem, not at least for next five years... Banks existed even before wallets and so did mobile applications. Still wallets are being used,” said Upasana Taku, co-founder of MobiKwik. “Wallets are too big a market in India,” added Pramod Saxena, founder and CMD of Oxigen, “However, you may see a hit on those wallets, which are primarily funded through debit or credit card.” “I think wallets can participate by being partners with banks. You use a Paytm not (just) because of the wallet, but because it helps you get a Uber or Ola ride. Partnership is their strength and they should use that,” said Vivek Belgavi, leader fintech, PwC India. SAME DIFFERENCE: WALLET VS Unified Payment Interface App Free What is a mobile wallet? A wallet on your mobile phone in the form of a mobile application that allows user to transfer money through a mobile phone to any person or merchant including additional services like utility bill payments, mobile recharges, online ticket bookings, payments to taxi operators like Uber or Ola. A user

can transfer money into the mobile wallet (application) through a debit or credit card, or via net banking. It works like a prepaid-card How does Unified Payment Interface App Free work? All a user needs to do is create a virtual address, which can be your name, or your phone number, instead of bank account details. For example, if your name is ABC, the your virtual address could be ABC@axisbank or ABC@icicibank. The user need not remember the 15-digit bank account number or the 11-digit IFSC code (used to identify bank branches) needed for net banking. Digital India' Brings Big Gains to Payment Gateway Firms Prime Minister Narendra Modi's `Digital India' push is proving to be a huge boon for the payment gateway companies as more payments are happening digitally which translates to increased traffic for these sites.A payment gateway is the interim page which opens up during the check out process of an online payment. Mumbai-based digital payments company TechProcess, which runs the payment gateway BillJunction, is hoping . 1,000 crore jump in for a ` monthly transaction vo lume driven by more partnerships with state entities and bill pay ments going digital. Bill Desk, which recent ly got the Bharat Bill Pay ments licence from the RBI, is also planning to de velop a mobile applica tion for retail users to pay their bills through Tech Process. It is also roping in retail agents to act as bill collection points for TechProcess where individuals without any access to internet can pay in cash for billers across the country . “We have tie-ups with around 700 government entities whose payments are routed through us in collaboration with a bank. Now we are also planning to come up with our own mobile application for retail bill payments. This should take our gross transaction value to `. 3,000 crore per month from around `. 2,400 crore presently,“ said Anand Ramachandran, chief finance officer, TechProcess Payment Services. Source: http://bit.ly/2oaUjUd