India

Digital payments can make travel payments easier and boost financial services in emerging markets. In some cases, it's doing both.

India's latest government-supported payments initiative, Bharat QR, officially launched on Monday, aiming to provide an interoperable mobile payments platform linking small merchants and consumers across channels via several major card payment networks.

OMA Emirates, a UAE-based payments provider, has acquired India-based MobiSwipe Technologies, a mobile payments provider launched in Mumbai in 2012.

Little-noticed during India’s cash-crunch late last year — triggered by the government’s demonetization of about 80% of its currency — was Samsung Pay quietly testing the waters in India with an eye to opening up vital new digital payment options in a nation that relies heavily on cash for everyday transactions.

Hong Kong and Singapore have long been economic crossroads. China and India are economies with vast populations. And Shenzhen is bursting with innovative creativity. All of these contribute to the Asian fintech market being far ahead in adoption and ecosystem creation.

India's sudden shake-up of its currency system last fall was an early holiday for digital payment companies, and Visa was no exception.

Axis Bank, one of India’s largest private-sector financial institutions, has reportedly become the first bank in the country to partner with Ripple for a blockchain-powered approach to cross-border payment.

India’s latest efforts to shift to digital payments and reduce the nation’s tight grip on cash are in the spotlight, following the government’s recent cash recall and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) giving its blessing to about a dozen digital payments startups. The newest, BHIM, is controlled by India’s government and is off to a fast start after its first week.

On the heels of India’s move last month to discourage cash-hoarding by demonetizing certain bills, Prime Minister Narenda Modi on Dec. 30 announced the rollout of a government-managed mobile payments app.

Payments software provider Ezetap says an agreement with Pax Global Technology Ltd. will bring "hundreds of thousands" of mobile and mini point-of-sale terminals to India as the country lessens its use of cash.

An agreement between First Global Data and India's Metro Infrasys will bring a one-click mobile payment option to drivers using the country's tollways.

In another move that furthers India's movement away from cash, police in Pune plan to initiate a cashless policy by the end of the first week of January.

India’s war on cash has at least two likely victors: Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.

India's move to remove much of the country's cash notes is having an adverse impact on much of the country's population, according to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

Earthport has used distributed ledger technology, including a partnership with Ripple, to build a global cross-border payment network.

India's cash crisis may threaten the country's traditional wedding season. Uber is attempting to solve some of the problem with a new car booking service.

India's abrupt recall of its larger bills — a bid to crack down on tax evasion — was a crash course in how to adapt to a cash shortage. Was this an opportunity for mobile payments or a failing of the overall financial services system?

Mastercard has launched its quick-response mobile payments system in India through its Masterpass mobile wallet, designed to help mobile banking users complete purchases through their mobile phones at the physical point of sale.

Major wholesalers at Delhi’s largest fruit and vegetable market, which serves most of the capital’s nearly 17 million people, are planning to sell their products at bargain prices in order to move perishable stock as the impact of India’s cash shortages continues to bite.

The crisis sparked by the shortage of cash in India following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-graft measure to ban high-value currency bills has hit the movement of goods in Asia’s third-largest economy.