Reliance partners with Google, FB for digital payment network bid: Report

India’s conglomerate Reliance Industries has partnered with Fb Inc, Google and fintech player Infibeam to set up a countrywide electronic payment network, Financial Times newspaper claimed on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

Final 12 months, India’s central bank invited firms to forge new umbrella entities (NUEs) to produce a payments network that would rival the procedure operated by the National Payments Council of India (NPCI), as it seeks to lessen concentration pitfalls in the house.

Established up in 2008, NPCI is a not-for-financial gain company, which as of March 2019 counted dozens of banking companies as its shareholders, which include the Point out Bank of India, Citibank and HSBC. It procedures billions of pounds in payments daily through products and services that involve inter-bank fund transfers, ATM transactions and electronic payments.

Citing 3 unnamed sources, India’s leading business daily Financial Times said that the group led by Reliance and Infibeam was in the superior stages of submitting their proposal to the Reserve Bank of India.

A spokesperson for Infibeam declined comment on the report, indicating the company was certain by the confidentiality of process, although Reliance, Google and Fb did not promptly reply to a ask for for comment.

Digital payments in India could rise to $one hundred thirty five.2 billion in 2023, in accordance to an Assocham-PWC India analyze in 2019.

Fb and Google are previously partnered with Reliance and individual stakes in Jio Platforms – the device which properties Reliance’s songs, motion picture apps and telecoms undertaking.

The RBI this week prolonged the deadline for all functions to submit NUE purposes until eventually March 31 from February 26.

The report said RBI is anticipated to acquire another six months to analyze all the proposals remaining submitted and that it is not anticipated to give far more than two new “for-financial gain” NUE licences.

The RBI did not reply to a ask for for comment.

Previously media experiences have said other functions in the fray involve a group led by Amazon and ICICI Bank another mix led by the country’s salt-to-software program conglomerate Tata Group and non-public financial institution HDFC Bank and a undertaking involving India’s most significant cellular payment platform, Paytm, domestic journey-sharing company Ola and IndusInd Bank.

 

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