Displaying items by tag: india

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is the oldest stock exchange in Asia, having been founded in 1875. However, in recent years, it has become the number two equity exchange in India, after the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

A decade ago, going to the bank in China meant queuing for an hour and suffering what was often very poor customer service. In a retail banking market with limited competition, there was little push to do anything different. Today, the industry is shifting rapidly. With online payment platforms like WeChat Pay and Alipay, digital payments are a reality for customers. Financial product distribution platforms like Lufax and CreditEase make it incredibly easy for customers to invest their money. P2P lenders are bringing new financial products and choices to the market. Customer communications has gone from an afterthought, to a key part of bank’s strategies.

The uncertainty over H1B visas in the US is taking a toll on Indian IT firms, most of which have heavy exposure to the US market in terms of both revenues and headcount.

The regulatory culture in the Asia-Pacific region shows a preference for incremental change being initiated in the markets by the regulators, as opposed to big bang measures. The manner in which the mainland Chinese markets have been slowly liberalized has been discussed in an earlier commentary. In this one, we look at the some of the upcoming changes being proposed in India and how they fit into the overall approach of the capital market regulator in the country.

The RuPay is an initiative by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It is intended to provide a domestic alternative to the global MasterCard and Visa card payment systems. It will also allow NPCI to consolidate various payment systems in India. It is directly comparable to its Chinese counterpart, China UnionPay, which has been highly successful and is a world leader in payment systems.

China’s financial industry faces a challenging year ahead. Economic growth is slowing, money outflows are testing the resolve of regulators and reform remains a challenge. Yet China remains at the center of the fintech universe as tech giants Lufax, PingAn, and Ant Financial continue to re-define banking in the world’s biggest country. 

The Indian economy is not likely to forget November 8, 2016. Not only was it the day that Donald Trump (now President-elect) won the election, it was also the day that Prime Minster Modi announced demonetization in India. The two events have already assumed seismic significance since, compared to which all other issues are dwarfed. The Indian banking industry is gearing itself to face the effect of demonetization. All of a sudden, digitization has become much more than a fashionable term to speak about in industry events.

High minimum investment thresholds, the expense of professional advice, and the general lack of access to wealth management tools have all served as challenges for small retail investors in China. However, fintech is empowering them by lowering the costs of, and expanding access to, wealth management products, thereby making it easier to manage one’s wealth.

On Oct 6th, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the operating guidelines for Payment Banks (PBs) and Small Finance Banks (SFBs).

On September 4th, Urjit Patel officially became the new central bank chief in India. He succeeded Raghuram Rajan, who was famous for largely stabilising the economy during his three year term. Under Patel's leadership, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to continue the current policy regime.