The long expected payment system of smartphone producer Xiaomi has finally entered the market. By cooperating with China’s dominant card-payment processor China UnionPay, users can now make purchases by using their phone and Xiaomi Pay through China UnionPays’ Quickpass system. The company’s latest offering comes as the third-party mobile payment market continues to grow tremendously. According to research firm Analysys Mason, the market valuation was set at 16 trillion yuan in 2015. This has attracted not only Chinese companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi, but foreign companies, as well.

The pie of banking services in India is well spread out amongst various types of banks, ranging from private sector, public sector, foreign banks, rural banks and even cooperatives. However, market forces are starting to whittle down the once varied field of payment service providers (PSPs), and it is starting to look more like a two horse race similar to other e-commerce markets in Asia. 

Capital Small Finance Bank (SFB) was launched this Sunday (April 24, 2016) with much fanfare. This is the first of the ten small finance banks to become operational. The SFBs had received in principle approval from RBI last fiscal to start operations.

Shanghai Gold Exchange started trading a new gold contract on April 19th. The contract is meant to become a global benchmark similar to the gold fix originated in London and New York, but denominated in RMB.

There's a clearing platform in development that might change the playing field of the payments industry in China. The Payment and Clearing Association of China had a member congress in April and has approved a proposal to build an Internet payment clearing platform for non-bank payment institutions.

And these are not Fintech startups alone. The banking sector is trying to woo this very important and growing ecosystem in the country. Some banks have resorted to novel ways of doing so. RBL (Ratnakar Bank Limited) has announced opening of a branch in Bengaluru dedicated exclusively to cater to the growing startup ecosystem in that city.  This comes close on the heels of SBI recently announcing the establishment of its branch called InCube in Bengaluru recently. RBL bank plans to launch several such branches across the country in the future.

It is well understood that India continues to have acute challenges around financial inclusion. Only 40 per cent of the adults in the country have formal bank accounts, despite the country having 150 domestic commercial banks and over 2,700 co-operative sector banks operating in the country.

The financial services sector in India is at it again; at least the regulators and the mainstream business publications are. Talking up UPI (Unified Payments Interface) as a panacea for India’s challenges with financial inclusion, cash economy (read black money), plateauing digital ecosystem and you name it. 

After a lull in investments and a lacklustre IPO, the Indian ecommerce market is heating up once again. While China-based Alibaba had earlier invested in Snapdeal (ranked #2 in India by market share) and Paytm, it recently announced a direct foray into the Indian market, making the entire ecommerce sector sit up and take notice. Now Japan’s Rakuten seems set to follow suit into India.

Recently DCB Bank became the first bank in India to introduce Aadhar based authentication at its ATMs, starting with its branch in India’s commercial hub- Mumbai. Aadhar provides a 12 digit number to every Indian resident that serves as a proof of identity as well as proof of residence, with biometric scanners being used for authentication.