After Demonetization, India Seeking a New Normal

The payments news from India just keeps coming.

As the government continues its push toward a cashless society, its policies are getting mixed reviews. But companies continue to shore up their digital payment offerings, hoping to capitalize on the climate there.

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Innovation In ID Technology Speeds KYC In India

Indian payment facilitator Paytm will be onboarding customers for its payments bank with eKYC enabled by India’s voluntary national identification program, Aadhaar.

As of Sep. 5, 2016, 87 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people had registered for the unique 12-digit number. To register, residents have to bring three forms of identification (proof of identity, proof of address, proof of birthdate) to an enrollment center, where their fingerprints and irises will be scanned.

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Alibaba-Backed PayTm Struggles With Global Payments. What Chance Do Others Have?

A brutal reminder of how convoluted and treacherous mobile cross-borders are today was shared by Paytm on Friday (June 10). That’s when the Alibaba-backed wallet said that it can’t be used for overseas payments based on current regulations, requiring instead that wallet users pay in Indian rupees.

Let’s be clear. Paytm is no slouch among mobile wallets and it’s backed by Alibaba—the multinational’s multinational. If Paytm and its partners can’t navigate payments from country to country, that’s frightening. “While the mobile technology can create lower cost and friction free alternatives for cross border small value payments, the same is subject to licensing under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999). Any cross border payments services by the payments bank will be offered subject to FEMA authorizations and RBI approvals. As such, the current Paytm Wallet cannot be used for overseas payments,” the Paytm statement said. “As per the existing authorization, the wallet can only be used in India and any impression that the existing Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) semi closed wallet can directly used offshore/for cross border transactions is unintentional.”

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Alibaba-Backed Paytm Gets Into Movie Theater Tickets—But They Have Bigger Things In Mind

India payments powerhouse—and Alibaba-financed—Paytm has cut a deal with India’s largest multiplex movie theater chain (PVR) to sell movie tickets in mobile and online. Why make the move now, with physical movie theaters a quickly dying industry? Those tickets will unleash a lot more one night at the cinema.

Why make a movie theater play now, when even the most aggressive movie industry defenders concede that the shared physical viewing of films will surrender to the better pricing and much stronger convenience of watching films at home or via mobile devices? It’s a smart move. Once shoppers have completed the digital movie transition, mobile payment options will surround them, assuming they haven’t already paid Amazon or Netflix directly. But by tying in physical movie payments with Paytm, they are making the mobile connection in a physical context. When those consumers make the inevitable move to a more digital experience, the account and the mindset will already be established. Better yet, Paytm will know the entertainment habits/choices made by those consumers, allowing for very effective marketing moves later.

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Global Wrap: In Australia, MC Exec Lashes Out At Apple/Amex Deal

This week’s global payments report has investments from Mexico, India and the U.K., an Australian cyber currency IPO delayed for the fifth time, a Canadian Amex small merchant initiative and a MasterCard exec lashing out at the Apple/Amex deal in Australia.

There’s more fallout from Apple’s decision to launch in Australia (and Canada, for that matter) only with American Express cards. This time, it’s from a MasterCard exec crying foul, arguing that regulators take a more lax regulatory position with Amex than with other card brands.
Eddie Grobler, division president of MasterCard Australasia, said “Apple Pay launching in Australia with Amex proprietary cards was a symptom of its ability to charge merchants much higher fees than Visa or MasterCard and therefore having much fatter margins to share with Apple, which has been demanding a cut of the fees paid to banks before allowing them onto Apple Pay.”

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