•     India has beaten China as the leading Fintech startup hub in Asia by attracting a larger volume of investments in the first quarter of 2019 revealing the contrasting environment in both the countries from an investor and regulatory point of view. According to venture intelligence firm CB Insights, fintech startups in India received venture capital investments to the tune of $286 million for the first quarter of 2019. In contrast, fintech startups in China received $192.1 million VC investments during the same period, a 87.56 per cent drop over the last one year. In terms of deals, in the first quarter of 2019, the number of VC investments in fintech startups in China declined to 29 from 49 in the last quarter of 2018. In India, the number of fintech deals rose by 61.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 when compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. According to CB Insights, in terms of value, VC firms invested $875 million across 127 fintech deals in Asia during the period between January and March of this year. In the first quarter of 2018, it had reached 131 deals worth $2.159 billion.

 

  •     UPI transactions have reached 781.79 million in April 2019. While the total number of transactions stabilised, month-on-month, the total value transacted by UPI grew by almost 6.4 percent, reaching Rs 1.42 lakh crore in April. Data released by Indian retail payments organisation, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) revealed that the total UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions have reached 781.79 million in April. In March, this number stood close to 800 million. While the total number of transactions stabilised month-on-month, the total value transacted by UPI grew by almost 6.4 percent, reaching Rs 1.42 lakh crore in April. Last month, this number stood at Rs 1.33 lakh crore.

 

  •     The Reserve Bank of India has put out its vision document for the payment and settlement systems in India outlining the roadmap for 2019-2021. According to the country’s apex bank, the Vision 2021 for payment and settlement systems in India aims to enhance the strong foundation built over the last two decades. RBI’s Vision 2021 for payment systems will concentrate on a two-pronged approach – exceptional customer experience and enabling an ecosystem, which will result in this customer experience.  The apex bank expects that number of digital transactions is expected to increase more than four times from 2,069 crore in December 2018 to 8,707 crore in December 2021.
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