Tag: mobile banking

The Unified Payments Interface is meant to simplify transactions over smartphones in the country.

The national payments system launched in India this week. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is designed to let shoppers complete transactions using mobile phones. So far, the launch includes 21 particpating banks. Customers of those banks can already use the mobile payments services.

Among the banks include ICICI, Axis Bank, Yes Bank as well as eighteen others in India.

With UPI, customers can use the national mobile payments system to both send and receive money. All they need is a smartphone and an account with a participating bank. This system functions by assigning a “virtual identifier” to a user, instead of a person’s actual identity. The purpose is heightened mobile security. There are a number of different functions available by way of the platform. The functions include: bill payments, barcode based in-store purchase transactions, real-time peer to peer (P2P) transactions, delivery payments as well as several others.

The national mobile payments system was initially announced in April and has since been pilot tested.

The pilot initially consisted of bank employees. Now that the pilot is complete, availability has broadened substantially. Any Indian bank with more than 1,000 pilot customers and a success rate of 80 percent with 5,000 or more transactions can use the UPI mobile apps. They can offer their branded version of UPI mobile payments applications by way of the Google Play store. That way, it can be accessed by the general public in India.

By using those requirements for launching the mobile apps in the Google Play store, the goal was to incentivize participation in the pilot. That way, there would be a greater capability for improving the application before the nationwide launch. It is possible for existing mobile users to integrate their platforms into the Unified Payments Interface.

Some have predicted that this national mobile payments platform will be very helpful in boosting e-payment adoption in India. That opportunity has the potential to move the country forward in its progress toward financial inclusion. This is important as only just over half of Indians (53 percent) currently have bank accounts.

Two out of every three people who have a smartphone or tablet have shopped with it over the last 12 months.

The annual ING International Survey – Mobile Banking 2016 revealed a considerable rise in European mobile commerce. In fact, 66 percent of mobile device owners in Europe had purchased something over their smartphone or tablet during the last year.

This represented a notable increase over the figure from the year before when it was 58 percent.

The countries in which European mobile commerce was the strongest are: Turkey, Italy and Poland. Furthermore, 50 percent of mobile shoppers will probably go back to a store that has retained their mobile payment data. The convenience of not having to re-enter credit card or bank account details is an appealing one to smartphone using shoppers in Europe.

The current data shows more Europeans are using mobile commerce apps and websites than ever before. They are purchasing both services and products. Among products purchased over m-commerce, electronics and clothing are the most popular.

The survey suggested “one-click ordering” is a among the top drivers in European mobile commerce.

ING’s research also underscored an increase in mobile banking. The study showed that 82 percent of people who use banking services over mobile phone or tablet are also shopping over those devices.

The European countries most using m-commerce are Turkey at 88 percent of smartphone owners, Italy at 69 percent of mobile device owners, and Poland, also at 69 percent. That said, the countries experiencing the fastest growth of mobile commerce shopping are France and the Netherlands. Smartphone and tablet owners in those countries are taking part in m-commerce 16 percent more this year than they were last year.

The United States is also seeing a rapid growth. It has risen by 16 percent to reach 74 percent this year. In Australia, the growth was much more modest at only 6 percent, bringing it to 49 percent of device users.

European mobile commerce has risen faster among younger generations of smartphone and tablet user. That said, all age groups have grown in their use of mobile shopping.