Why my 17 yr. old son thinks cashless payments will be bad for him

My son, who is applying for university: Mum, you speak of digital and cashless payments, but I think cash is actually very useful. I’ll be away from home, and I want to make sure I do not overspend. I can load up my wallet with a fixed amount per week or month, and make sure I spend only within that.

Cash is tangible. I can go count it any time and I will have better control over my spend. If I’m making a mobile payment, it becomes too easy to pay. If the payment is backed by a credit card, won’t it make me less conscious of the money I’m spending?

How can we ensure digital payments not only make it easier to pay, but also help my son and his generation manage their finances?

Google's smart decision on branding GooglePay

Google consolidates its payment products, Android Pay and Google Wallet, into a single new brand - Google Pay. It's a smart decision when companies decide to simplify how it presents their solutions to consumers, in an already crowded and fragmented market https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/08/google-pay/?ncid=rss

EY Fintech Adoption Index 2017

An interesting look by EY at the consumer adoption across different Fintech services, and in different countries.

Some salient points:

• Money transfer and payments* tops the list with 50% of consumers using Fintech money transfer and payments services, followed by Insurance at 24%, Savings and investments at 20%, Financial planning at 10%.
• Top 5 countries feature China which tops the list with 69% adoption, India at 52%, UK at 42%,  Brazil at 40%, Australia at 37%.
• China, India and emerging markets' high adoption a mark of FinTech firms exceling at tapping into the tech-literate, but financially underserved population, of which there are particularly high ratios in emerging countries.
• Singapore is at 23% adoption, below the average of 33%. The average itself has gone up from 16% in 2015. 

Note: The survey sample size is quite small at 22,000 digitally active consumers who have used each product but  it does cover 20 mature and developing markets. 

* includes a large array of services - Online foreign exchange, Pay via cryptocurrency, Overseas remittances, Online digital-only banks without branches, Non-banks to transfer money, Mobile phone payment at checkout

For the detailed report you need to download the PDF.

#Fintech #FintechAdoption #Payments #MobilePayments

Challenges SMEs in Singapore face in going cashless

With $2 billion as costs incurred by Singapore to manage its cash and cheque-based payments, cashless is the way to go. However interoperability and merchant fees are among key areas that need to be addressed for Singapore's cashless drive.

Even DBS' PayLah though free, won't work for merchants in its current form as it is primarily a P2P payment mode where transactions go through personal account rather than corporate account.

Check this article on the challenges SMEs in Singapore face in going cashless: http://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/challenges-smes-face-in-going-cashless

Singapore keen to catch up with China on digital payments

Just last week, I had an interesting conversation over dinner with a couple of my Lean In Singapore Women In Tech team members on the developments made in payments in the respective countries we hail from (one is from Australia, another from China, I'm from India).

We spoke of the massive leaps made in developing markets such as China, India and parts of Africa that have left developed countries far behind in how payments get done. My friend from China spoke about the exact thing that Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong stated in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday - that Chinese tourists would consider Singapore backward for still doing things the old way!

China has seen an astounding spread with cashless payments. To the extent that China has now reached a stage where the government has to remind merchants and payment providers that cash is still a valid payment option! 

#mobilepayment #cashlesspayment #China #India #Singapore #payments #Alipay

When stress can be fatal - Article for SHB Social Foundation

I found earlier this week that a former colleague, a wonderful kind, gentle and knowledgeable human being, passed away last week. Of a heart attack.

Over the past week, after I shared a post on this on Facebook, I received a few messages from people sharing that they too had themselves suffered a heart attack from severe stress, or knew someone up-close who had gone through this.

I remember that colleague and I talking last year when one of his other team members had died suddenly of a heart attack. He had known that guy well for years and was deeply saddened…mentioned that he had been going through a lot of stress recently…wondering if that had brought on his untimely demise?

The kind of stress that builds up, brings on a heart attack, a fatal one…?

I don’t know what was the cause of his death. But then when I look around, stress is palpable with so many of us. All those sources of what causes stress aren’t going to go away suddenly. But we all need to know that stress needn’t be here to take shelter in our lives.

Let’s hope each of us can do our bit to chisel it away bit by bit – meditate, exercise, yoga, dance, sing, meet, laugh, talk, cry…Help ourselves, and help those around us.

We also need more of us actively reaching out to others for help – be they our family, friends, others in our network or our neighbourhood. Somehow, stress tends to get pushed under the carpet – thinking this shall pass. But how many of us are conscious that it has built up to a stage where it has already caused tremendous harm to us!

I can’t be thankful enough that organizations such as SHB have been tackling this through its Listening Post initiative – a talking space, that recognizes that the simple act of talking, and having someone to listen to you, can be therapeutic. May the tribe grow, and may all of us dealing with stress avail of these services wherever they may be available.

This article was first published on SHB Social Foundation

With the extensive coverage that WeChat Pay and Alipay have in China, mobile based payments are already intrinsic to payments in the domestic market. And over the past few years, Alipay's international reach is only growing. The Alipay-Yelp coverage extends it further.

I believe that's the true beauty of payments - woven so well into our lifestyles, we don't even know it's there!

Check this: http://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2107113/alipay-and-yelp-join-forces-drive-local-experiences-chinese