Agpaytech Research

The Indian tax regime is a complex system designed to ensure that individuals and businesses are paying their fair share of taxes. The Government of India is continuously making efforts to simplify the tax system and reduce the burden of taxation on individuals and companies. Therefore, it has introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which applies to direct and indirect taxes. GST is a single, unified tax system designed to eliminate the cascading effects of multiple taxes. In addition to GST, the Government of India has also introduced several other tax reforms to make the system simpler and more efficient. These include rationalising the tax structure, implementing advanced tax compliance, and introducing the Taxpayers' Charter. The Government has also been actively engaging with the public to ensure taxpayers understand their obligations and rights under the Indian tax regime. It will help to ensure that individuals and businesses pay their fair share of taxes, contributing to the nation's growth and development. To learn more about the Indian tax regime, click the report below.

The idea of facilitating installment payments is not new, e-commerce and the fintech revolution have contributed significantly to transforming Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) into what it is today. For consumers it’s a convenience through a streamlined, low-friction, integrated check-out experience, whereas for merchants is boosting conversion rates and average order value. But with the current economic crisis amidst rising public debt reaching record levels, will consumers and merchants subscribe to BNPL?

This study found that BNPL provides several benefits such as consumption relief to individuals to pay later, boosts merchant sales, revenue for Fintechs, promote eCommerce marketing and many others. This report examines the BNPL model in the African market, potential challenges, risk, timing, and its market focus.

Fintech's presence in the financial landscape contributes significantly to financial inclusion worldwide. With the recent substantial increase in remittance and FDI inflows to African countries, Fintech contributes to cross-border payment and financial accessibility through remittance services and investment fund opportunities.

In this paper, Agpaytech opined that Remittances and FDI would likely improve formal financial access and inclusiveness when unbanked persons deposit their money in the financial sector and benefit from the multitudes of financial services offered by mobile transfers operators and fintech firms.

The report indicated that monies received in Africa as remittance and FDI are enough to sustain startups and Fintechs to build robust financial markets for inclusiveness.

The evolution of payment gateways in India has been remarkable over the past decade. From the introduction of e-wallets to the development of biometric authentication systems, the payments landscape in India has seen immense progress. This progress has allowed Indian businesses to become more competitive and has allowed consumers to pay for goods and services with greater convenience, speed, and security. As the Indian payments landscape continues to evolve, the country is sure to become a leader in the global payments space.

The chatbot market is witnessing growth due to increasing demand for messenger applications and the growing adoption of consumer analytics by various businesses globally. How then does ChatGPT make a difference and is it ready to serve Banks and Fintech? The question of how artificial intelligence can transform banking and marketing continues to attract attention from scholars.

ChatGPT technology is evolving, with a variety of contents and applications that could be useful to the banking, fintech, and marketing sector. Businesses are always looking for more ways to save money and become more efficient.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are digital versions of fiat currencies issued and backed by central banks. In recent years, the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and digital payments has prompted central banks worldwide to explore the possibility of issuing their digital currencies. CBDCs aim to provide a safer, more efficient and accessible alternative to traditional physical currencies and payment systems while preserving central bank control over the money supply and financial stability. This report will examine the current state of CBDC development, Improvement and explore the potential benefits and challenges of CBDCs.

This report examines the relationship and inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and remittances as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in African countries. In terms of FDI, the report discovered that Africa received the least value of FDI inflows of $47 billion in 2019, and $40 billion in 2020. This accounts for a 14.89% decrease in foreign investment in Africa.Agpaytech analysis revealed that most African countries receive more remittances as compared to FDI. We found that 23 countries had received higher remittances than FDI as a percent of GDP. The number of countries which had received more FDI than remittances were 12. Moreover, 13 countries had unstable FDI or remittances flows.

e-RUPI is a contactless payment mechanism developed in coordination with the DFS (Department of Financial Services) and NHA (National Health Authority) powered by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This seamless one-time payment mechanism enables users to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app or internet banking access at the merchants accepting UPI e-Prepaid Vouchers. The e-RUPI would be shared with the beneficiaries for a specific purpose or activity by organizations via SMS or QR code. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the e-RUPI, use cases, benefits and why it is the future of payment in India.

The financial landscape worldwide has experienced numerous financial breakthroughs especially after the post COVID-19 era. Central Banks have been more active than before, Fintechs and startups surge up, innovative financial models and instant payment in the consumer finance market is on the rise globally. Agpaytech presents 12 key financial innovations that were most talked about worldwide.

A neo-bank is a mobile, online and tech-based bank offering financial and digital services and mostly has no physical branches. These banks provide services like lending, investments and saving accounts and credit cards like a traditional bank: however, they operate entirely online. The U.S. neo-bank ecosystem competes well with its global peers; seven out of the top fifteen Neo-Banks worldwide are headquartered in the U.S.

The quest for reliable data to provide personalized open finance services to consumers is on the rise. With this, technological organizations are gearing up to adopt Web 3.0 technologies.

The fundamental idea behind Web 3.0 is to create a decentralized version of the Internet by removing the dominance of the centralized power of Web 2.0 giants and giving control back to users. In this report, Agpaytech presents the Web 3.0 technologies that influence open banking initiatives. It includes the Web3 technology applications such as blockchain technology, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and smart contracts.

The report highlights the impact of Web 3.0 on Fintechs, data access, and adoption challenges in the financial market. It also discusses how will Web 3.0 will improve the Open Banking concept as well as drive open finance model for Fintechs.

Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) has improved the African payment system, reducing delays and cost of bulk transactions as well as promoting instant payment in the retail payment sector. Also, the financial market infrastructure (FMI) for large or high-value payments has grown significantly over the years in Africa. AGPAYTECH conducted a study on the availability of RTGS in African countries. We found that 45 African countries have real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems operationalized by their respective central banks. Secondly, we found no information on the availability of RTGS for the Central Bank of Comoros, Central Bank of Djibouti, Bank of Eritrea, Central Bank of Mauritania, and National Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe. Moreover, each regional bloc or monetary union has regional RTGS to facilitate interbank transactions and trade settlements. In most countries, RTGS has been deployed alongside the central securities depositories (CSDs), securities settlement systems (SSSs), central counterparties (CCPs), and trade repositories (TRs).

Indian unified payment interface is a real-time payment system that helps instant funds transfer between two bank accounts. The volume of real-time payment (RTP) rails is on a steep growth trajectory, and in 2022 the magnitude of digital payment transaction in India crossed the 45 billion number mark. This report covers the growth of UPI, its current trends, future and challenges.

The open banking (OB) initiative is changing traditional banks and Fintechs' collaboration by repositioning traditional banks as players in the digital revolution. The OB approach permits third-party access to customer financial data from banks through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide seamless and personalized services. The number of open banking users worldwide is expected to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 50% between 2020 and 2024, with the European market being the largest.

This study explores the readiness of Ghana in adopting Open Banking. This report covers the key conditions for the effective implementation of Open Banking in Ghana. We examine the prerequisite of Open Banking from the perspective of governance, market, infrastructure, fintech, and consumers’ readiness. The report indicated that Ghana has all that it takes to implement Open Banking such as open data initiative (regulatory sandbox), infrastructure (GhIPSS), banks and fintech readiness.

Several countries worldwide are leading the development and regulation of open banking (OB). The notable countries are EU, UK, India, Canada. Although no African country has enforced a clear legislative rule for open banking, there are still promising developments in several countries. Currently, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana and Kenya are preparing grounds for the OB initiative. However, only Nigeria has issued a regulatory approach to adopt the OB in its payment landscape.

In Africa, Open Banking has the potential to transform financial services, increase competition, broaden service offerings, support innovation, and improve convenience and customer experience. Regulators and banks are warming up to the idea of sharing customer data with Fintechs. In this report, we examined the development of open banking worldwide and its growth characteristics by region. Secondly, the report discussed the open banking ecosystem and open platform initiatives in Africa. Lastly, the report highlighted the policy motivations, opportunities, and potential challenges of open banking.

Agpaytech suggests that following measures to improve OB adoption in Africa

- Clear regulations and legislation on data sharing and management

- Clear consumer consent guidelines

- Set standards for APIs

- Open engagement forums with stakeholders

Open banking is an insight into how retail banking will transform in the future. Currently, it is demonstrating a fast-growing technological evolution that is gaining significant traction with consumers.This form of banking will change how millions of customers and small businesses presently conduct business with their banks and make the interaction far more effortless.

Open Banking works on the PSD2 principle that encourages banks to securely share their customer's bank and card transaction data with trusted third parties who can provide end users with applications and services that save time and money. Open Banking has started to facilitate the development of innovative payment services that have the potential to compete with cards as a payment method and act as a substitute for direct debits.

This report covers the development of the open banking ecosystem in the UK and the factors shaping its evolution.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced in June 2021, under the “Fintech 2025” strategy, that it would embark on an rCBDC project, Project e-HKD. This multilateral project has now entered a pilot phase and has been well recognized by the international financial community. The HKMA will therefore start work to lay the foundations for, and conduct in-depth studies and pilots on, the implementation and application of rCBDC

This report provides insight into Russia's request for payment of energy in rubles from the “unfriendly countries”. First, we examine the paradigm shift of Western countries' reliance on Russia's energy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Secondly, the report explores the implications of SWIFT disconnection and sanction of the Russian Central Bank, how it would affect payment models, and the new payment approach to bypass the sanctions.

The report found that the new Russian payment system requires foreign importers to deposit euros or dollars into an account at the private Russian bank called Gazprombank, which is exempted from the SWIFT disconnection. Gazprombank used the dollars or euros received as collateral to get rubel from the Central Bank of Russia and then deposited the rubels in the importer’s account to pay for Gazprom energy.

Can the Central Bank of Russia access the deposited dollars? Read the full report below

Indian Unified payment interface is a real-time payment system that helps instant funds transfer between two bank accounts. The volume of real-time payment (RTP) rails is on a steep growth trajectory, and in 2022 the magnitude of digital payment transaction in India crossed the 45 billion number mark. This report covers the growth of UPI, its current trends, future and challenges.

A Summary of U.S Treasury Department Report

This report reviews the design choices for a potential U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the context of public policy considerations related to building the future of money and payments, supporting U.S. global financial leadership, and advancing financial inclusion and equity, whiles minimizing risks.

The report covers the core features of the CBDC the type, payment features, account functionalities, intermediaries, architectural designs, and security concerns.

While the current U.S. system of money and payments has significant strengths, the United States also needs to continue to innovate in support of its policy objectives.

The U.S objectives center around themes of developing a future system of money and payments that promote U.S. values, fosters inclusion, and minimizes risks for financial inclusion.

Summary

In the US payment market, merchants or retailers present consumers with several payment options, including cash, credit card, debit card, prepaid card, mobile payment app, or check.

It covers the Bank of England's (BoE) workings with Pay.UK to establish a common ISO20022-based messaging standard for future payment communications. This report encapsulates the new and faster payment system BoE is developing.

Based on the US Treasury Report (2022), Agpaytech discovered that there is a constant decline in cash for payment by consumers in the US, whereas debit card keeps increasing since 2016, and remains the most used payment choice by consumers as of 2021. Besides, the use of credit cards is growing faster and is very close to a debit card as a means of payment.

The survey outcome by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco indicates that as household income increases, they tend to use less cash as a payment instrument, and use more credit cards. This shows how the consumers' income is changing the payment instrument in the USA.

Implications

The decision to use cash, especially for the lower household income group, could be attributed to the transaction cost or fees.

This report hinted that consumers’ payment choice is not static over time in the US and card usage remains higher.

This serves as an opportunity for Fintechs, bigtechs, policy-makers, and central banks to advise mechanisms to lower the cost of electronic transactions, provide incentives to households with fewer income levels, and find ways to bring all unbanked households to the financial market sector.

Technology plays a crucial role in the payment industry and is working effectively towards making the payments ecosystem faster, robust and more reliable. This report analysis the UK payment system and discusses a new form of digital money. It further analysis the traditional ways of banking and money transfer activities.

It covers the Bank of England's (BoE) workings with Pay.UK to establish a common ISO20022-based messaging standard for future payment communications. This report encapsulates the new and faster payment system BoE is developing.

Nigeria remains the first African country to issue regulatory guidelines to operate the Open Banking platform on February 17th, 2021. Open Banking requires customers to permit third-party providers (TPP) to use API to access their personal data, account details and transaction history held with their banks and provide real-time, consumer-friendly financial products and services that meet users’ needs.

The CBN has outlined the customer information that could be accessed, guidelines for APIs, Fintechs, Banks and consumer consent management. While the potentials of Open Banking are numerous in the Nigerian financial market, the CBN never ruled out risks or attacks on Fintech, APIs, and users.

The Open Banking initiative is expected to reduce the cost of transaction fees, provide quick and easy access to personalized tools and products, easy access to a financial account, and demonstrate your creditworthiness more easily to loan providers by having all your information in one place.

The Ministry of Finance fiscal data released in July has shown a substantial deficit in revenue from the debatable electronic transfer levy. The E-levy was initially projected to rake in ¢6.9 billion by the end of 2022 of which it was revised to ¢4.5 billion.

Currently, the data indicated revenue received in May and June was 8.09% and 12.99% of the targeted amount. The total amount raised as of the second quarter of 2022 stood at ¢93,728,578, which is just 6.41% of the estimated budget of ¢1,462,311,113. This means that a huge amount of ¢1,368,582,535 was missed.

Implications

Generally, the E-levy sparked widespread anger among a section of Ghanaians right from its pronouncement by the Finance Minister. Mobile money agents and subscribers agitated this could impact people’s income, and reduce the use of mobile money payments. This has resulted in missing all targets in the revenue mobilization as far as the E-levy is concerned.

With the preparation to launch eCedis, and the promotion of digitalization in Ghana as key financial inclusion agenda, a further slash of the levy to 1% or 0.75% would reduce the negative impressions and change consumers’ perception of e-money. Besides, there is an urgent need for public education on the exclusion and inclusion criteria of the E-levy on mobile money payments.

As most central banks across the world aimed to issue central bank digital currency (CBDC) often called fiat money, other investors in the crypto market were worried about the consequences it would have on the business environment. This seems like a fierce competition between private bigtechs, crypto miners and central banks, the consumer market is skeptical about the efficacy of central banks to issue digital currency as a means of payment in the consumer financial retail market. Key Themes : Have central banks misplaced priority to entering the consumer fintech market by providing retail CBDC? Or its high time CBDCs represented the digitized version of a nation’s physical cash? Do CBDCs pose a threat to the cryptocurrency market by providing a legal framework and securing users' money with an asset that is problematic in the open cryptocurrency communities? The report acknowledged the significance of cryptocurrency in providing commodity money for wider global transactions and eliminating financial institutions from the credit system. The paper recommends that swift monetary policy is required to establish equilibrium grounds and address cryptocurrency and CBDC disparity.

India is the largest remittance-receiving country in the world, and this is an essential source of money for a large part of the population. A considerable percentage of the labour workforce in Gulf co-operation countries originates from India; thus, this region is one of the largest sources of remittances to the country. However, there is a noteworthy change in sending pattern of money being sent back home, where innovation leading to digitalisation in the payments industry has changed the modes of transaction and has made the process very convenient.

While Scholars have identified several challenges in cross-border payments such as expensive, slow, and not transparent, with more disconnected layers, etc., few studies focused on the impact of diverse currencies in the same region as well as other regions on cross-border transactions. With several monetary zones in Africa coupled with over 42 currencies in circulation, the report explores how cross-border payments occur within and across regions based on cross-currencies. Moreover, we expanded the concept of building regional payment areas as championed by Arner et al. (2022) and proposed a comprehensive policy approach to enhance cross-border transactions in Africa.

In India, cryptocurrencies are not illegal, yet there isn't a regulatory framework to govern such virtual assets. The government had constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on November 2, 2017, to study such digital currencies. However, it believes that cryptocurrency has the potential to be misused, and it remains highly volatile for retail investors. And this is why cryptocurrencies are something that regulators are not welcoming with open arms. If you want to gain a better understanding of the crypto market in India or the challenges it faces, please click the link below.

The cost of sending money to Africa surpasses all regions in the world. According to the World Bank, sending $200 costs an average of 8.2% of the transaction compared to South Asia, which is 4.6%. While the remittance charges on formal money transfers are higher, migrants have adapted to informal ways through friends, unregistered remittance service providers, currency swapping, and “when I visit” techniques to send money home. For this reason, coupled with Covid-19, the aggregate remittance inflows to Africa declined by a sharp 14.1% during 2020 (Word Bank Group, 2021). This report investigates the factors that account for the high cost of remittance charges and provides holistic guidelines to reduce the charges. The report includes the global and regional remittance costs. Besides, the paper provided an overview of the remittances inflow pattern in Africa by region.

India's financial inclusion has increased, both in terms of cash and digital ecosystem. Its digital payments infrastructure development has aided in strengthening the economy. The infrastructure of UPI and e-wallets allow people to migrate to a digitalised and cashless society. The Government has undertaken several robust initiatives to empower the economy digitally. And it is doing so by including people financially and strengthening both the cash and digital payment options. However, the Payments Infrastructure requires specific policy considerations to provide the stakeholders with greater clarity and allow them to envisage better.

The payment systems in Africa have been revolutionised, from the barter trade system to modern digital currencies and mobile payments. The continent aims to improve its cash-dominated economy, and several reforms and financial technology approaches have been implemented both at the country and regional levels. The report provides details on the payment system available in each region (West, North, South, East, and Central Africa) and the promising opportunities for financial experts. It is interesting to know the major payment systems in Africa, each region and country; obstacles to achieving financial inclusion; and the need for a unified payment facility.

In March 2021, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank launched the Eastern Caribbean dollar(DCash) digital version as a legal tender. The ECCB partnered with several local and regional businesses and consumers to ensure that this form of currency is widely distributed and accepted. DCash was initially launched in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Christopher (St Kitts), Nevis, and Saint Lucia. It was introduced to ensure that transactions are more straightforward, transparent, and faster. To know more, please read our research report by clicking the link below.

Ghana E-Levy: Ghanaians start paying a 1.5% tax on electronic transactions from May 1. The levy applies to mobile electronic transaction that exceeds GH¢ 100. The Electronic Transfer Levy Act 2022 (Act 1075), assented into law and gazette on 31 March 2022, aims to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is in charge of the e-levy collection. Now, let’s explore the new charges, inclusions, and exclusions of the e-levy and its impact on Ghana’s digitalisation drive.

The Chinese e-CNY is currently grasping global attention due to its widespread use and piloting at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Besides, the Peoples' Bank of China (PBOC) is pushing for global dominance and the use of e-CNY by partnering with neighbouring countries to experiment with a robust digital cross-border payment system. WeChat Pay has embraced the system, making it optional to pay with e-CNY or WeChat Pay.

One of the most significant contributions of the Cryptocurrency boom is the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that powers it, commonly known as the Blockchain. This technology has the potential to become the backbone of the Fintech Industry. Blockchain frameworks are built on several principles, such as various rules of participation, network, specifications, and mechanisms. Some are open, permissionless networks, and some are closed design frameworks; individual use cases and utility are used to determine it.

The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) race has witnessed tremendous participation from many countries globally. China and Nigeria are leading the CBDC implementation in Asia and Africa. Meanwhile, Technology Service Providers are working restlessly to provide sophisticated technical support to CBDCs. This report gives a clear picture of the CBDC progress of each continent and the fintech companies providing the technology services.

This report highlights Ghana’s backed digital currency (eCedi) and Mobile Money (MM) Payment in Ghana. It focused on the global perspective of mobile money and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), their associated features, design models, and potential implications and interrelationships in achieving cash lite economy.

The Nigeria Central Bank partnered with Bitt Inc. to design and launch eNaira, Africa’s first CBDC. The eNaira aims to provide a fast and resilient payment system whiles broadening the financial inclusion.

Africa's appetite for digital currencies is growing expressively. While Ghana is piloting its central bank digital currency (eCedi), Nigeria has launched its e-Naira. This paper provides an expectation of the architectural insights of eCedi.

In the Domestic Financial Ecosystem, many Central Banks have managed significant inroads in understanding the frameworks for introducing Central Bank Digital Currencies

A technology that has refused to digital money, global payments, and applications is known as Ethereum. The Ethereum community has led to a booming digital economy

Blockchain is one of the most promising technologies that is immutable, reliable and operates a lot quicker and in affordable rates.

The First Country globally to launch its central bank digital currency (cbdc),The sand dollar.one of the primary objective is to combat the financial problems originating from natural disaster