The 1st edition of two days long (July 22-23, 2020) world’s largest Global Fintech Fest (GFF) was held virtually, which was organized by Payments Council of India (PCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) at National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the theme “Fintech : With and Beyond COVID”. The aim of the fest was to bring together the global FinTech and Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.
- Notably, both organizers of the fest work under the aegis of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
- The event was hosted by 6Connex Inc., a provider of virtual event solutions.
- The Department of Economic Affairs – Ministry of Finance, Government of India and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were the Presenting Partners for this event.
- This event was also powered by Amazon Pay and brought to you by WhatsApp and Google Pay, it is also supported by the World Bank & United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
The fest saw various launched for BFSI sector which are as follows:
–NPCI launched UPI AutoPAy to ease online recurring payments
In order to ease online recurring payments in India, NPCI introduced a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) AutoPay feature. It is a one-stop fintech payment solution that allows customers to create e-mandate through their UPI ID or QR Scan. For transactions less than Rs. 2,000, customers have to authenticate their account through UPI PIN for one-time and subsequent monthly payments would be debited automatically. For an amount greater than Rs. 2,000, a UPI PIN authentication will be required for every mandate.
- Mandates can be set for one-time, daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half yearly and yearly as well.
- This feature can be used for multiple financial purposes such as utility payments, booking bus pass, train tickets, paying DTH subscriptions among others.
- In January 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed the NPCI to develop a recurring payments feature on UPI through electronic mandates.
UPI in India:
-As per, India Digital Payments Report 2019, there were UPI facilitated transactions worth Rs. 18,36,000 crores in 2019, up 214% from 2018.
-UPI is also the fastest product to hit 1 billion transactions-a-month in 2019 since its inception in -August 2016.
–NPCI launched SBM EnKash RuPay Business Card for small business
NPCI launched RuPay commercial card named SBM EnKash RuPay Business Card in partnership with State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) India, EnKash, YAP (API- Application Programing Interface provider) and RuPay for young entrepreneurs and small business owners. The card will be disbursed through SBM touchpoints.
- The card is aimed to streamline business expenditure and finances by offering expense tracking, and also provides a 30-day credit period on business purchases, bill payments, travel expenses, automated GST, rental payments, among others.
- Users can also get access to EnKash’s Whatsapp- based expense management service to manage and control all employee and business related expenses.
SBM Bank (India) Limited is the first bank to receive universal banking license from the Reserve Bank of India to set up and operate as a Scheduled Commercial Bank under Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS) mode offering banking services in India.
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–Nandan Nilekani launched open credit protocol network
At the Global Fintech Festival, 2020, founding architect of Aadhaar and co-founder and non-executive chairman of Infosys Ltd, Nandan Nilekani launched a new credit protocol infrastructure called the ‘Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) protocol, which has been developed by Indian Software Product Industry RoundTable (iSpirit), a think-tank of the software industry.
- OCEN will act as a mediator between loan service providers (LSPs), usually fintechs and mainstream lenders, including all large banks and NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies) with marketplaces. It will democratise credit in the country, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs get loans.
- iSpirit is partnering with key lenders such as State Bank of India, HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., IDFC First Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd. and Bajaj Finserv Ltd. for this new credit rail.
- This launch is on the lines of the recommendation of former SEBI Chairman Upendra Kumar Sinha Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) in a report suggested new technological interventions for MSME lending
–SEBI formed committee for financial and regulatory technology
The market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has formed a high level committee to look at financial and regulatory technology at Global Fintech Summit. This committee will examine the aspects of technology and unstructured data analysis for surveillance functions and market development.
- The committee will also make recommendations on the adoption of technology for markets as well as for SEBI.
About Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI):
President– Dr. Subho Ray
Headquarter– Mumbai, Maharashtra
About National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI):
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)– Dilip Asbe
Headquarter– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Recent Related News:
On May 27, 2020 National Payment Corporation of India(NPCI) has launched an artificial intelligence(AI) based chatbot, PAi, to create awareness around its products like FASTag, RuPay, Unified Payments Interface(UPI), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System(AePS) on a real time basis & to improve digital financial inclusion in India. It is developed by Bengaluru based startup CoRover Private Limited.
