Visa chasing Indian payments market as mobile money gains traction

Visa CEO Alfred Kelly has affirmed the company’s goal to claim a “fair share” of India’s incipient cashless payment market by offering low cost, low hassle solutions to merchants.

Kelly stated during the company’s Q3 fiscal earnings call that while India presented massive opportunity, the firm faced strong competition from companies offering more innovative solutions that Visa’s typical rivals, noting “we’ve got competitors that go beyond just the traditional players that we’ve competed with over the last number of decades.”

With India making a concerted effort during 2016 to push towards a “less cash” economy, Visa began heavily promoting merchant payment technologies that could deliver small-sum payments via mobile. Its predominant offering in India is a QR code-based system that works together with mVisa-based payment apps.

“Because it’s an exciting market and a lot is going on, there’s a number of players trying to get into the market,” said Kelly. “We clearly have to have a way that’s low cost, low hassle, low friction to enable merchants to sign up.”

“It is very, very early in the payments maturation curve for India,” he added. “There is years to still play out here and we’re going to do everything we can to take advantage of our heritage and tradition, our brand, our different product sets, our security, the globality of our network as well as our digital tools to make sure that we’re winning at least our fair share, if not more, of the business in India as it grows.”

India’s increased push towards mobile payments has gained significant traction of late, with global wallet providers looking to establish a firmer footprint in the populous market. Meanwhile, established operators are deploying new payments services, and the country’s telecom authorities are helping to extend the reach of payments infrastructure, as well as encouraging the participation of traditional banks.

Source: developingtelecom.com