'Telco-Bank JVs not desirable in payments space'

摘要

Terms such as m-payments or m-commerce or mobile money or mobile banking are de jure nowadays. These mean slightly different things to different folks in the value chain. However, essentially it is seen as a consumer play in the financial services space but the adoption has been slow as compared to apps, listings, marketplaces travel and ticketing e-tail. And it is so on account of cautious customers. As money and services move up and down the value chain from Ex factory ＞Wholesaler＞Distributor＞Stockist＞Retailer＞Con sumer, and back up again, the sweet spot for electronification of the payment process lies within the business enterprise segment. This solves problems of cash management, float, real time reconciliation, theft and pilferage and working capital thus needs shaving off several 100 basis points in the cost structures of companies and directly impact their bottom line as efficiency savings. All this without having to make any dramatic change in their current business flow or processes. In conversation with Voice&Data, Probir Roy, co founder of Pay Mate, a mobile commerce company credited with an early mover payment network, shares some thoughts on what India needs to do to facilitate and boost m-commerce.