2017 YEAR-ENDER: DIGITAL PAYMENTS

The cash-crunch following demonetisation complemented bythe government’s digital push has written a great story for the digital payments space in India over the past year with success stories, newregulations and changing dynamics.

UPI

While the United Payment Interface (UPI) shows multifold growth in both volume and value, the government’s dominating share with the BHIM app sawa decline with the entry of Google Tez while existing player Phone Pe also increased its marketshare.

M-wallets and mobile banking (6.1 m-wallet)

Mobile banking is on a declining trend while e-wallets keep up their pace of growth. E-wallet companies are aggressive ly expanding their portfolio as well as partnering with banks to increase marketshare. The central bank’s decision to allow interoperability between wallets will see greater competition and accept ability of wallet sin 2018.

Card payments

While card payments, both debit and credit, are on the rise, Pointof Sale (POS) transactions seem to be overpowering ATM transactions. While the pace of growth of volume and value of transactions at ATMs slows down, those at POS terminals are on the rise, especially with debit cards which have more than doubled. This will get a further boost in the upcoming year with the RBI’s revision of the merchant discount rate(MDR) and the government’s announcement to bear MDR charges for debit cards