Is cryptolending the future?
Remember a few years ago when Bitcoin was all the rage? Everyone thought it was the next big thing. From the obscure geeky past of Bitcoin in 2008, founded by the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, the new currency moved through the hype cycle and grew from strength to strength. Bitcoin technology also gave rise to more…
Continue ReadingAccount Aggregators-not quite there yet
2016: RBI approves a new class of non-banking financial companies to function as Account Aggregators (AA) to extract, aggregate, and transfer financial data with the express consent of users. 2019: Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 (PDPB) introduced in the Indian parliament to provide the legal backbone for AAs. 2020: PDPB yet to come into force,…
Continue ReadingThe rise of Embedded Finance
Though embedded finance is gaining headspace today, it is not a new concept. The traction is due to the recent spike in interest shown by venture capitalists, private equity investors and fintech companies. The changing attitude among banking customers, even among the old, who are now willing to look at non-banking finance, added to the…
Continue ReadingThe Indian Banking Licenses Story
In today’s digital era, the Indian banking sector is considered one of the most evolved banking systems in the world. With healthy competition thriving between the public and the private sectors, the banking sector in India has a variety of players that work within the ambit of varying banking licenses and legal frameworks. To understand…
Continue ReadingTech companies and the money foray
The growing indispensability of technology companies in the financial industry Global technology giant Google announced that it is entering the banking industry in collaboration with six partner banks to offer current accounts to US-based customers. The impressive list of banks were Citigroup, Stanford Federal Credit Union, Bank Mobile, BBVA USA, BMO Harris, Coastal Community Bank,…
Continue ReadingThe UPI Revolution
Innovations of yesterday and conveniences of today, and building blocks of more innovations for tomorrow. Today, thanks to the popularization, acceptance, and availability of UPI-based peer-to-peer payments, the world has become a near-cashless place. During the panic-ridden demonetization phase, or during the extraordinary lock-down situation during the Covid-19 pandemic, UPI-based products and services were a…
Continue ReadingLooking into Loan Restructuring
The impact of the pandemic-led nationwide lockdown on economic activity, especially in the lending sector has been immense. Everyone from small town lenders to multinational banks have been affected. As job losses and pay cuts started as early as March, the Reserve Bank of India announced a moratorium on loan repayments. In its financial-stability report,…
Continue ReadingCentral banks and COVID-19 (Part 2)
In the previous blog, we read about the approach of the US and Indiato the Covid-19-led economic and financial slowdown. In this blog, we will look at two Asian countries, South Korea, and China, as well as the European Union and list out their policies to cope with the economic crisis. South Korea –…
Continue ReadingCentral banks vs COVID-19 (Part 1)
For most of this year, the entire world has been caught in the jaws of a worldwide pandemic of Covid-19. Entire countries have been shut down, and with the unlock measures creating a spike in new cases, many countries have started the second phase of lock downs in a desperate attempt to slow the spread.…
Continue ReadingBlended finance and the post-COVID economy (Part 2)
Check out our primer blog on Blended finance and post-COVID economy part 1 here Banks have a crucial role to play To fund projects in South and Southeast Asia concerning water sanitation, Bank of America provided $5 million of interest-free capital into a fund that proceeded to attract $45 million in additional private capital.…
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