ICICI Bank’s Pockets becomes first wallet admitted to UPI network

ICICI Bank’s Pockets wallet has become the first financial institution in India to be permitted to offer UPI IDs in its own name and make transactions directly without routing it via a bank account. So far, UPI IDs were reserved only for those who have an account with any recognized Indian bank, including co-operative banks. […]

Bharti Airtel raises $100 mn from Mastercard via Africa mobile money stake sale

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel said US-based payments processor Mastercard will invest $100 mln (Rs 730 cr) into its Africa mobile payments business. The announcement comes two weeks after TPG Group invested $200 mn in Airtel Money Africa. The latest agreement values Airtel Africa’s mobile money business at $2.65bn on a cash and debt free basis, […]

ICICI Lombard, MobiKwik join hands to provide cyber-insurance cover

ICICI Lombard, one of India’s leading private sector general insurance companies, said it has entered into a strategic partnership with one of India’s largest retail payment platform MobiKwik to provide cyber-insurance cover. The newly formed partnership aims to provide the customers protection against unauthorized and fraudulent transactions online across bank accounts, debit/credit cards and mobile […]

Paytm to set up 1,000 branded ATMs?

Paytm, India’s largest digital wallet player, is reportedly planning to set up 1,000 ATMs across the country under a branding tie-up with Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd. Although Tata Communications did not confirm the news, the network connectivity provider said it has a “co-branding alliance” with a “leading payments bank recognized as India’s largest digital […]

With Hitachi, SBI hopes to beat back competition from PayTM, PhonePe

State Bank of India and Hitachi Payment Services announced the start of operations of their payment processing venture in India as India’s largest bank tries to stay on top of the merchant-payment business. Hitachi took a 26% stake in SBI Payments in January for an undisclosed amount. SBI Payments was already India’s biggest merchant-enabler payment […]

Flipkart’s PhonePe eyes PayTM as it readies to sign up half a crore merchants in 2019

PhonePe, the payment app backed by Flipkart, announced that it has crossed the 1 mln merchants milestone and plans to add another five million this year. This is likely to help the company narrow the gap with market leader PayTM, which had an estimated 10 mln (1 cr) merchants in its network as of late […]

MobiKwik creates wallet app for bank even as rivals focus on payments bank

Wallet app provider MobiKwik announced a tie-up with IndusInd under which it has launched an app exclusively for the bank’s 10 mln customers. The move is in line with the app company’s strategy to be a partner and solutions provider to traditional financial services companies such as banks, instead of recreating the whole banking infrastructure […]

JIO Wallet Offers: Paytm, Amazon, PhonePe give cashback on 399 recharge

Wallet players like Paytm, Mobikwik, PhonePe and AmazonPay have come up with cash back offers for Reliance Jio users who want to take advantage of the Rs 399 recharge scheme valid till today midnight. Last week, India’s largest wireless Internet provider said anyone recharging with Rs 399 to get 84 days of ‘free’ usage, will […]

Don’t ignore cards in the era of mobile payments – SBI

The ongoing rollout of Bharat QR and other mobile payment systems could result in some pain for banks as it could make it harder for their card or PoS business to become profitable. According to an estimate by the State Bank of India, card swipe transactions cost significantly more than Bharat QR and mobile transactions, […]

PayTM ropes in IIT Kanpur for ‘cashless campus’

PayTM, India’s biggest mobile payment company and a minority subsidiary of Alibaba Group, said it partnered with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to bring its cashless payment solution to the country’s premier engineering college. Under the program, students will be able to make payments using the mobile app at hostel canteens, medical store, tea stalls, […]

Bharti Airtel to launch pan-India Payments Bank tomorrow

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom company, will take a crucial step towards entering the financial services business as it launches its Payments Bank operation across India tomorrow. Payments Bank refers to a limited operations bank that can be primarily used for making transactions, and not for depositing money. The operator has already started operations of […]

PayTM adds support for UPI payments

Customers of PayTM, India’s largest wallet service can now make payments using the Unified Payments Interface, the government of India’s open payments platform. The company has signed up with ICICI Bank be able to receive payments from its customers who are on the UPI platform using its ID ‘paytm@icici’. However, customers cannot simply transfer the money to […]

After Freecharge, Axis Bank wins virtual POS provider Paynear for its UPI platform

Paynear, which helps shopkeepers and businesses to accept card payments without buying a point-of-sale (POS) machine, has tied up with Axis Bank to implement support for UPI or Unified Payment Interface. UPI allows users to send and receive money and make payments using IDs that resemble email addresses (for example, rajesh@icici). Paynear is an Indian […]

Three lakh Amul outlets to start accepting MobiKwik payments

MobiKwik, Indian mobile wallet major, today announced its tie up with Amul, the Indian dairy cooperative. The association will help customers of Amul in making cashless payments with MobiKwik at 7000 Amul outlets and 3 lac Amul Multi brand outlets & retailers across India. “In today’s less cash economy , through this pan India initiative […]

PayTM hit by Rs 6.15 lakh fraud

PayTM, India’s largest wallet company, has been cheated to the extent over Rs 6.15 lakh by 48 customers claiming illegal refunds for goods they already received. A case has been registered with the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is currently looking into the matter. Besides PayTM, others such as Freecharge and MobiKwik are also present […]

BEST bus users can now pay using Freecharge and Ridlr

Freecharge, owned by Snapdeal, said users of BEST public transport buses in Mumbai can pay for their tickets using its wallet service. This has been achieved by tying up with Ridlr, the official mobile ticketing app partner of BEST. “BEST commuters can now pay for their bus tickets and monthly passes digitally, saving them the […]

Freecharge ties up with ICICI Bank to offer POS services

Snapdeal-owned FreeCharge has tied up with ICICI Bank’s Merchant Services, which will allow consumers to pay their bill at over 1 Lakh ICICI stores with their Freecharge accounts. These merchants are located at across 700 cities and towns in India, the company said. “FreeCharge’s partnership with ICICI Merchant Services, powered by First Data, will ease […]