India

The rapid development of the Indian mobile wallet market demonstrates the importance of reactivity and adaptability. Huge opportunities await those who can successfully navigate the transformative impact of regulation, emerging technologies and shifting consumer expectations, writes Elina Mattila, executive director of the Mobey Forum.

Ride-hailing and mobile payments company Grab has acquired iKaaz, a Bangalore, India-based payments technology startup, to power its growth in the Southeast Asia region.

India’s income tax officials are investigating transactions at various illegal bitcoin exchanges, a week after the country’s central bank cautioned users of the virtual currency about potential risks.

Almost 10,000 merchants in Hong Kong and Macau will offer discounts throughout December to Alipay users from Mainland China. Merchants in India, Thailand, and other markets will also participate.

Paytm Payments Bank is targeting to become the world’s largest digital bank with 500 million bank accounts and aims to turn into an integrated financial services company that offers everything from wealth management to share trading.

India’s IDFC Bank and local mobile wallet provider MobiKwik are collaborating to provide a virtual prepaid Visa card for nearly 65 million MobiKwik users.

India’s push to build a broad biometrics-based consumer identity database—now 1 billion strong—has been a boon to Paytm and other mobile payments providers leveraging Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the open-architecture structure supported by India’s government.

Apple Inc. is exploring ways to bring Apple Pay to India, according to reports.

Mastercard will invest $750 million in India in the next four to five years by continuing to acquire companies there, CEO Ajay Banga said this week.

In service now for a decade in Africa, India and parts of Europe, M-Pesa is expanding its telco-driven mobile money service to include tap-and-go payments through wristbands, stickers or cards.