BharatPe Appoints New CEO; Aditya Birla Group Launches Fintech App

BharatPe Appoints Nalin Negi as CEO

Indian online payments platform BharatPe has promoted one of its top officials to now serve as the company's CEO. Nalin Negi, who has already served as an interim CEO and CFO at the firm, has reportedly led it towards a profitable period. As per reports, the revenue from operations from BharatPe rose by a whopping 182 percent under Negi's leadership in 2023.  

As part of his new designation, Negi will work to sustain this profitability for the company. He will also be initiating research and development around newer services that could make business running simpler for Indian merchants. "Negi's extensive experience in the fintech industry and the growth witnessed for BharatPe under his leadership, makes him a natural choice to lead the company," media reports quoted Rajnish Kumar, Chairman of the Board, BharatPe as saying.  

RBI Allows Revolut to Issue Prepaid Payment Instruments in India

The India unit of Revolut has received a green light from the RBI to expand its fintech services in the country this year. The London-headquartered platform will now be able to provide international and domestic payment service through its platform.  

India's apex bank has allowed Revoult to offer Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) -- which includes prepaid cards and wallets. Finalising this approval, the RBI has tagged Revoult as Category-II Authorised Money Exchange Dealer (AD II). The platform will also offer multi-currency forex cards as part of the service. The development comes at a time when India has been maintaining strict oversight over fintech firms.  

Aditya Birla Group Launches Super App for Fintech

Aditya Birla Capital Ltd. (ABCL) has launched a direct-to-customer fintech app. This is one of India's largest non-banking conglomerates that is venturing into the fintech space. The name of this app has been decided as ABCD – which expands to Aditya Birla Capital Digital.  

This app is capable of offering credit cards, payments stack, tax calculators, as well as AI chatbots for assistance. The app will also embed UPI payment services into its operation. It will launch for a wider userbase in the coming days. Commenting on the launch of this app, market analysts reportedly said that this platform is bring services like lending, insurance, and investments along with just online payments services.  

NPCI to Probe Google Pay and PhonePe Dominance in India

In the days to come, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has decided to balance the competition in India's UPI space. In the coming days, the body will start meeting fintech players also offering UPI services through their platforms to help them get some understanding of the ground situation. As per reports, PhonePe and Google Pay collectively process 86 percent of the UPI transactions that are facilitated in India.  

NCPI's scanner hovers over Google Pay and PhonePe now after the RBI also expressed concerns about unfair concentration of users in the UPI services fintech sector. The UPI payment system lets users process peer-to-peer money transfer in absolute real time. Over the years, the UPI payment method has become widely popular and accepted across the country. Now that the technology is also being borrowed by other countries from India, the NPCI aims to ensure that only few service providers keep the market share captured leaving next to nil for other players.