How To Revive Interoperability In UPI

In Interoperability – The Sole Loser In UPI, we saw why interoperability has been compromised in UPI. In this post, we’ll explore ways to revive this noble goal. Some people advocate education campaigns to increase awareness of VPA and thereby revive interoperability. Once people know what a VPA is, first they would ensure better VPAs and … Read more

What Does Customer Centric Really Mean?

Customer Centric means “thinking about the customer while designing your product and overall experience”. There are various facets to the customer: Tasks – as in jobs to be done Preference – as in taste Interest – as in vested interest Welfare – as in happiness All of the above Which facet should customer-centric credo think … Read more

Decoding The Tenuous Link Between GDP And TPV (Total Payments Value)

Many people conflate the amount of payments processed in a country with the country’s GDP. This is wrong: GDP drives, but does not cap, TPV. Take the COO of a leading mobile payment fintech: April loss of business is $80bn approx vs cost of vaccinating India $8bn:RTGS – 🔻33%NEFT – 🔻34%UPI – 🔻3%IMPS – 🔻9%Credit Card … Read more

Interoperability – The Sole Loser In UPI

We ended Banks Have Not Lost The UPI Plot on a sobering note: Sadly, interoperability has been given the short shrift in the way UPI has evolved. In this post, we’ll see how interoperability has lost the UPI plot. One of the founding principles of UPI is “interoperability”, which stipulates that anyone with any UPI app … Read more

Banks Have Not Lost The UPI Plot

The common man hears about Google Pay, PhonePe and PayTM while making UPI payments – rather than State Bank of India, HDFC Bank or ICICI Bank. Ergo there’s a widespread belief that banks have lost the UPI plot. Take this tweet for example: The statement on NEFT with stanchart applies to the HDFC as well. … Read more

Second Order Thinking Doesn’t Make For Good Memes

A few years ago, I had guided my retainer customers in the digital payments space on how to address imminent threats from identity theft and cyberfraud. More in In #CashlessIndia – Why Putting Cart Before Horse Will Work. Cue to the present day. The media is full of reports on frauds in UPI payments. As … Read more

BNPL Ain’t Killing Banks – It’s Making Them Rich

Every time a shiny new fintech product or service enters the market, finsurgents immediately predict the death of traditional banks. But traditional banks always go laughing all the way to the – ahem – bank. We saw this when mobile wallets were the rage 8-10 years ago. Finsurgents predicted that they’d kill credit cards. Didn’t … Read more

Three Reasons Why Companies Don’t Behave Like Individuals

Since companies comprise individuals, many people believe that companies and individuals will behave in an identical manner under the same situation. I disagree. There’s a big disconnect in the behavior of individuals versus companies. I can think of at least three reasons for this disconnect: Fiduciary responsibility Market cap Emotion #1. FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY Let me … Read more

Consent Dilemma – Have You Given It Or Not?

The Netflix show Social Dilemma has rekindled the eternal controversy over privacy, tracking, and manipulation by digital companies. As consumers, many of us outrage at brands for using our private information to target us with personalized communications, ads and targeted offers. In this post, I’m going to go out on a limb and argue that … Read more