Google is expected to launch a mobile payments app in India next week. Google Tez, which means “fast” in Hindi will reportedly support Android Pay as well as the government-backed Unified Payments Interface and other consumer payment services including Paytm and MobiKwik.
The battle for e-commerce and payments domination is on in India. Paytm, an e-payment/e-commerce brand and payments bank, is bringing the QR code scanning habit to the Indian masses, while rival Flipkart has raised $2.5 billion from Japan’s SoftBank and Amazon has launched its digital wallet.
Competition in the corporate meal voucher market in India is heating up as providers are launching alternatives to paper vouchers, which the Reserve Bank of India will no longer allow beyond 2017. Among them is online commerce platform Paytm and electronic payments provider Zeta.
While the Indian government works toward a digital economy, the Reserve Bank of India is soliciting feedback through March 31 on guidelines for prepaid payment instruments that could adversely affect issuers of prepaid products, including mobile wallets.
With funds flowing from some of the biggest names in payments, including PayPal and Ant Financial, March got off to a hot start for worldwide e-commerce and fintech investment. Providers around the globe have landed hefty financing rounds from some venture capital, payments and financial services heavyweights during the first half of the month.
Amid India’s recent boom in m-wallet transaction volume following a government discontinuation of two popular currency notes, the government now is considering developing an insurance framework for mobile wallet and electronic transactions. Government officials from the IT Ministry already have begun discussions with m-wallet providers and insurance companies on how to insure money in the wallet apps, according to The Financial Express.
Ant Financial Services Group, the online and mobile financial services affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has just become a competitive juggernaut in the remittance business with the acquisition of MoneyGram, the second-largest provider of money transfer services based in the U.S. The transaction of approximately $880 million for all of MoneyGram’s common and preferred shares announced Jan. 26, not only helps MoneyGram compete with Western Union, it helps the combined company compete with startups that have been trying to shake up the market for years.
