The potential for Facebook's cryptocurrency is huge, but will regulators play ball? LONDON: If Facebook's new cryptocurrency should resonate anywhere it should be India, where the social media giant has more than 300 million followers.Many Indians are shut out of banking and face punitive fees for simple transactions, like transferring money to their loved ones. But in India as elsewhere, the US company's ambitions to remake global finance through its "Libra" currency will have to overcome regulatory mistrust, plus the existence of popular homegrown rivals in the market for digital payments. "If regulations were not a hurdle in India, Libra would instantaneously have a massive reach because of Facebook," Anirudh Rastogi, the founder of a technology-focused law firm in New Delhi, told AFP. When it launches next year, Libra will be backed by a basket of real-world currencies and a consortium of companies. To mint and store new coins, access to its underlying "blockchain" … [Read more...] about Virtual Facebook currency faces real-world resistance
New users paytm offers
CitigroupJoins India’s Digital Paytm for Card Launch
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By Telis Demos WSJ Tues., May 14, 2019 Citigroup Inc. is partnering with Indian mobile-payments app Paytm to issue the service’s first physical credit card. Paytm dominates India’s digital-payments market, with some 350 million users as of late last year. The Citi deal is the latest example of upstart financial players and technology firms partnering with banks to move into more traditional card payments—an indication both of the upstarts’ expanding clout and also of their need to find ways to generate revenue beyond often free digital transfers. PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo has met with banks to discuss launching a credit card, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Apple Inc. has partnered with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on a credit card that is expected to launch later this year. Likewise, banks are looking to piggyback on the exploding growth of online payments and shopping globally, as they have with Amazon.com … [Read more...] about CitigroupJoins India’s Digital Paytm for Card Launch
Citigroup look to vastly expand India reach with Paytm tie-up
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's top digital payments firm Paytm on Tuesday launched a credit card with Citigroup, widening its financial product base while giving its banking partner an opportunity to vastly expand its credit card customer base in the country. The new card should help Paytm stay a step ahead of rivals in the fiercely competitive digital payments market in India where companies from Alphabet Inc-owned Google to Walmart-owned PhonePe, are all scrambling to grab a piece of the digital payments pie that is projected to grow to $500 billion (386.16 billion pounds) by 2020, according to the Boston Consulting Group. For Citi, it is a big opportunity to extend its retail presence in India. Even if only 1% of Paytm's over 300 million customers use the new credit card, that's a huge number, Stephen Bird, Chief Executive, Global Consumer Banking at Citi told reporters at a news conference. "We think there is a tremendous potential for growth of this partnership," Bird added. Paytm … [Read more...] about Citigroup look to vastly expand India reach with Paytm tie-up
As Amazon leads cashless charge, states and cities push back
Rebecca Esparza works with homeless people and, having once lived in a shelter herself, knows what it’s like to navigate the U.S. economy if you don’t have much money. For most of her clients, cash is king because they lack access to the financial tools many Americans take for granted-checking accounts, debit cards, payment apps. Esparza worries that the growing number of cashless stores and restaurants around the country will further marginalize low-income people at a time when inequality is already the highest in more than half a century. “We just forget just how poor the poor can actually be in this country,” says Esparza, who works at the Lawrence, Kansas, affiliate of the nonprofit Family Promise and once sold her blood to support herself and her five children. “I could totally be part of that cashless system today, but it would totally discriminate.” Legislators around the country agree with Esparza and are taking steps to halt or slow the … [Read more...] about As Amazon leads cashless charge, states and cities push back
How To Start Investing In A Cashless Society
Jan 28, 7:54 PM EST Newsletter Signup BusinessTechnologyWorldNationalMedia & CultureOpinionSportsLuxury Business By Matthew Cochrane 01/28/19 AT 7:13 PM The world is changing the way it conducts business. For centuries, humans have used cash to buy and sell goods and services because local fiat currency has been the most efficient way to to conduct commerce. Yet, over the past several decades, technology has drastically changed consumer behavior as well as how governments respond with new rules and regulations. Recent seismic payment shifts away from cash have been driven by the rapid rise of e-commerce and mobile payments.Meanwhile, businesses have faced new opportunities and problems. How quickly is the world moving toward a cashless economy? Are certain geographic areas more likely to experience this transformation? Is this a positive change for society? We'll explore these questions, with an aim to capture nuanced … [Read more...] about How To Start Investing In A Cashless Society