Several Founders, Co-Founders, CXO Bankers, CXO Fintech professional & people who participated in the e-panel discussion
- Mr. Rajiv Anand, Executive Director, Axis bank
- Mr. Kamonasish Aayush Mazumdar, Chief Marketing Officer, MeraEvents
- Mr. Sunil Kulkarni, Joint Managing Director, Oxigen Services (India) Pvt Ltd
- Mr. Neeraj Chandra, Head of Operations, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
- Mr. Bhairav Trivedi, Former Chief Executive Officer, Network International
- Mr. Alok Arora, Director, Mosambee – Synergistic Financial Networks
- Mr. Piyush Singh, Fintech expert
- Many other CEO/CXO Bankers & Fintech professionals on FIAKS Forum
In the FIAKS communities, a question was asked as to why Tap & Go card-based contactless payments (sub Rs 2,000) haven’t taken off in India?
Let’s first try to understand what is a Tap & Go card. This is often referred to as wave to pay or tap to pay or contactless cards. These are instruments, which enable payments simply by tapping the card near a point of sale (POS) terminal. Traditional cards have a magnetic stripe on the back while Tap & Go cards contain a chip and an antenna. It works on the NPC (Near Field Communication) technology that sends data wirelessly to a nearby terminal for completing the purchases process. Visa payWave, Mastercard PayPass, American Express Expresspay, and Discover Zip are some of the brands that use this technology. The two main purposes of Tap & Go cards are convenience and speed.
According to a respected member of the community, changing customer and merchant behavior takes time. Australia is a leader in this where 9 out of 10 transactions are Tap & Go. However, it took them 7 to 8 years to get there.
A leader of the community then mentions all the reasons why contactless payment has not taken off in India, in the order of their importance. Following are the said reasons:
- lack of infrastructure
- lack of contactless cards
- lack of specific use cases
- lack of education
However, another member of the community had a different perspective. As per him, Rs. 2,000 is a substantial value for a transaction to take place without a PIN. The customers would initially hesitate to use the card thinking that without the PIN it is not safe.
Register and Read the entire ePanel disussions