These big companies like Reliance-Facebook can soon knock in the digital payment market
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has partnered with Google and Facebook to set up the New Umbrella Entity (NUE). This will enable the company to create a payment network like Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and gain a share in India’s digital payment market.
As per a report, this NUE will be jointly promoted by So We India, a subsidiary of Reliance and Infibeam Avenues Limited. Facebook and Google will have less share in this. In this context, the companies may soon submit their proposal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
These consortiums of companies are in the race for New Umbrella Entity-
- Reliance Industries, Infibeam Avenues, Google and Facebook
- Tata Group, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, MasterCard, Bharti, PayU
- Amazon, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Pine Labs, BillDesk and Visa Card
- Paytm, IndusInd Bank, Ola Financial, Centrum Finance, JetPay and EPS
Naveen Surya appointed as Managing Director
People familiar with the matter said Naveen Surya, the former founder of ItzCash and payment industry veteran, has been appointed as managing director and chief executive. With the help of NUE, these companies will be able to create a payment network like UPI.
The consortium’s plan to strengthen India’s digital economy will soon be presented to the central bank. Representatives of these companies have been discussing the issue with the central bank for the last few months to ensure compliance after the formal presentation of the bid.
The central bank had extended the last date to fill the application
It may be noted that the Reserve Bank of India has extended the last date for filing the application for the New Umbrella Entity i.e. NUE to 31 March 2021. Before this, 26 February 2021, was the last date to fill the application. In this context, RBI stated that requests have been received from various stakeholders including Indian Banks’ Association to extend the period keeping in view the disruptions and inconveniences related to Covid-19. Therefore, it has been decided to extend the application period to 31 March 2021.
