GFF 2024: Spotlight on this year’s biggest digital payment launches

By Gloria Methri

The Global FinTech Fest (GFF) 2024 was a hotbed of innovation, with numerous companies unveiling products that promise to shape the future of the financial industry. The three-day event, which ended on August 30, was jointly organised by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Payments Council of India (PCI) and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC). Over 800+ speakers, 350 sessions and delegates from over 100 countries were in attendance.

The event presented an opportunity for many players within the field of FinTech, payments and digital financial services to launch and showcase new products. From enhanced UPI features to cutting-edge payment solutions, here is a roundup of the biggest product launches at GFF 2024:

Bharat BillPay (BBPS)

The Global Fintech Festival marked the launch of two new product offerings built by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The first offering is Bharat BillPay (BBPS) for Business, which is designed to streamline B2B transactions across multiple ERPs and accounting platforms.

It aims to standardise and automate various invoice payment processes for daily business operations. This platform offers business onboarding, search and add business, purchase order (PO) creation, invoice management, automated reminders, guaranteed settlement, financing, AR (Accounts Receivable) and AP (Accounts Payable) dashboard, and online dispute resolution.

UPI Circle

The second offering, UPI Circle, is a delegated payment method in which a primary user can allow a secondary user to perform transactions from his/her account. The primary user can either authenticate each transaction or set a limit of up to Rs 15,000, within which any transaction can proceed with minimum intervention and adequate risk mitigations.

PhonePe’s PG Bolt

PhonePe Payment Gateway also announced the launch of PhonePe PG Bolt, which delivers a faster payment experience with UPI Lite, Wallets, and Electronic Gift Vouchers through a one-click, PIN-less process. By providing complete control over the customer’s payment experience within the merchant app, it eliminates the need for redirection to external payment platforms. India’s beauty and lifestyle retailer, Nykaa, is among the early adopters of the new solution.

Zoho Payments

Global technology company Zoho has entered the payments sector with the launch of Zoho Payments, a unified payment solution for businesses to accept money online from their customers. This solution also offers a suite of banking services, including invoicing, payment collection, and expense management, all within the Zoho ecosystem. A registered payment aggregator with with the NBBL, Zoho Payments allows businesses to accept and send payments through multiple modes, such as NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, UPI, cards and Netbanking.

Mastercard Payment Passkey

At GFF 2024, Mastercard announced the global launch of its new Payment Passkey Service. Debuting first in India as a pilot, the service makes transactions not only faster but also more secure against fraud and scams. The Payment Passkey Service uses tokenization to secure a consumer’s payment details and biometric data, ensuring that no data is shared with third parties and is useless to fraudsters and scammers.

Razorpay

Razorpay unveiled a suite of products at GFF, including India’s first biometric card authentication with Mastercard, which uses fingerprints and facial recognition for identity verification. It also introduced Push Provisioning for card tokenization and Razorpay TokenHQ to centralize tokenization processes.

Razorpay’s new FRM Suite offers real-time, AI-driven fraud detection, while UPI 360, in partnership with Airtel Payments Bank, enhances UPI infrastructure with on-cloud technology. It also launched UPI Contextual Payments, the QR-centric Razorpay AI, Bharat Soundbox, DigiPOS in-store payments app, Razorpay EMI² with extensive bank and NBFC collaborations, and the AI-powered chatbot, R.A.Y.

Google Pay

Google Pay introduced a suite of new features designed to enhance convenience and security for users. The highlights include:

eRupi Service: Merchants can issue prepaid vouchers tied to a customer’s mobile number, allowing payments via any UPI app without linking a bank account.

ClickPay QR Scan: Enables users to pay bills by scanning a QR code, providing easy access to the latest bill information.

Prepaid Utilities Payment: This service supports recurring UPI payments, allowing users to link utility accounts and automate payments for services like energy bills.

Tap & Pay for RuPay Cards: It allows secure card payments through tapping, with no sensitive card information stored on it.

Autopay for UPI Lite: Enables automatic top-ups for UPI Lite accounts, simplifying small transactions and transfers.

Visa

At the GFF event, Visa also announced its collaboration with multiple FinTech companies and banks to launch a range of payment solutions:

HDFC PoS: A device for merchants integrating PoS, QR code scanning, and soundbox features, with Visa as the network partner.

Paytm NFC Card Soundbox: This device combines mobile QR payments with a card machine for offline merchants, supporting both card tap and QR code payments.

Neo for Merchants: A mobile app by Axis Bank and Mintoak offering payment acceptance, transaction reporting, and service requests.

Partnerships for Cards: Visa collaborated with IDFC First Bank for the Ashva Metal Credit Card and with HSBC for the Premier Signature Debit Card.

CRED In-App Tokenization: Enables device tokenization across multiple merchant apps for CRED Pay.

Pine Labs Mini: A soundbox-enabled device supporting QR, NFC, and card payments.

Push Provisioning: In partnership with AU Small Finance Bank and Juspay, Visa allows cardholders to tokenize their payment credentials through their issuer’s app.