OPPORTUNITIES IN FOCUS
“CONTACTLESS CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD PAYMENTS ARE NOW STANDARD IN INDIA, AS ARE REAL-TIME PAYMENTS EFFECTED, FOR EXAMPLE, VIA INTERNET BANKING.” In India the central bank, RBI, has set up a committee to determine how blockchain technology can best be implemented and regulated in the country. A "hackathon" was even organised recently by Block Chain University on the Mumbai Stock Exchange in order to stress-test computer security in a controlled environment. One Indian player, Zebpay, based in Ahmedabad, has set up a blockchain laboratory to develop blockchain technology. The company has already received about US$1 million in equity funding. Unocoin (Bengalaru) enables users to buy Bitcoins with Indian rupees.
Payment Systems are Evolving In terms of payment technologies, a number of innovations are now underway in India. Contactless credit and debit card payments are now standard in India, as are real-time payments effected, for example, via internet banking. Many start-ups have entered the digital payments space to simplify mobile money transfer, such as Chillr, which provides peer-to-peer money transfer without using any bank account details. Several leading Indian banks are launching their own digital wallets leveraging National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI)'s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platform. These digital wallets are integrated with social media features. One example is Buddy backed by State Bank of India.
ment. The idea is that an individual with funds to invest and in need of ideas no longer needs to make an appointment at an office with a man (or woman) in a suit but instead can subscribe to an online robot wealth manager at a fraction of the cost. As a general guide, wealth managers typically charge one percent per annum or more of funds under management whereas robo-advisers charge one quarter of one percent or less.
Robo-Advisory – Indian Style
Here in the UK, it has had numerous exemplars, most recently Munnypot PLC, founded by Andrew Fay and Simon Redgrove, ex-directors of Cavanagh Group PLC. Munnypot aspires to offer clear advice and five tracker products which suit investors' particular risk-reward parameters. Once they invest, Munnypot will then keep clients informed about performance and advise on possible alternatives if market conditions changeiii. It's the investment advisory analogue of what I described recently in the context of robot doctors. And if you trust your health to a robot, why not your wealth as well?
Robo-advisors have been billed as the next revolution in wealth manage-
Fidelity, Blackrock, Schroders and Charles Schwab are already in this
One regulatory problem is that payments platforms have to invest 75 percent of their deposits in treasury bills which are very low-yielding. This is currently inhibiting profitability.
space. In May this year, Betterment, a leading robo-advisor in the US with assets under management of over US$3 billion, was valued at US$700 million. In Australia regulatory authorities have set up the Digital Financial Advisory Committee to collaborate with startups on developing regulations given that various banks are planning to launch robo-advisory platforms in the near future.
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