From left: Ravi Jagannathan, MD & CEO, Y-Cash; Bhavik Vasa, VP – Gifting & Alliances, ItzCash Card; Prashant Kapoor, VP (New Initiatives), Outlook Money; Kumar Karpe, CEO and Whole Time Director, TechProcess; Debajyoti Gupta, GM (Digital Banking), Union Bank of India
The pace at which the digital currency is being adopted, the role of physical currency over the next few years will only diminish. Consumers realise the convenience of these wallets over physical currency— digital wallets allow users to make purchases electronically using a smartphone, thereby reducing the burden of carrying cash. The session opened by indicating how the cost of transaction has been going down from an average Rs.24 at the bank to Rs.15 at the ATM and less than a rupee through digital wallets. Digital wallets have disrupted the role of traditional banks as well as currency notes.
While the proliferation of wallets is a reality, Kumar Karpe, CEO and Whole Time Director, TechProcess Payment Services, pointed out that consumer adoption needs to be matched with acceptance. The consumer behaviour towards easy adoption of digital wallets needs to be matched by merchants and vendors where these can be used. Ravi Jagannathan, MD & CEO, Y-CASH Software Solutions, pointed out that almost all wallets offered similar services, but to make them more meaningful, there is a need to build value into their offerings.
Bhavik Vasa, Vice President – Gifting & Alliances, ItzCash Card, spoke about the behavioural aspects of digital wallet consumers and how the adoption to digital wallets is equally to do with discounts, cashback and other benefits which are not necessarily sustainable in the long run. The debate over cost of acquisition as well as the ROI on each wallet customer elaborated on the issues faced by the digital wallet players, which, if not addressed, could result in an unviable business environment.
1. Johnson D’silva, Associate Publisher, Outlook Money presenting a token of appreciation 2. Bhavik Vasa during panel discussion 3. Interactive Q&A session
Debajyoti Gupta, GM (Digital Banking), Union Bank of India, shared his views on how digital channels are being adopted by bank customers at a fast pace. The implementation of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to simplify and provide a single interface across all systems is something that Gupta and other panelists foresee as the next big leap in popularising digital wallets. This new interface is designed to enable all account holders to send and receive money from their smartphones with a single identifier—Aadhaar number, mobile number, virtual payments address—without entering any bank account information.
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