Global Fintech Fest 2023 — Seen And Heard On Day 3: Hype Overweighs Fact

The final day of India’s largest fintech fest saw a little sobering up after the mad rush of the first two days. Attendees were mostly in networking mode, with fewer high-voltage sessions lined up. The exhibition section, which housed an abnormally high number of metaverse-related innovations, was wound up before 3:00 p.m.

The fest was a success by all measures, including the ones this reporter made up without the organisers knowing. The organisers believe that the fest saw roughly a footfall of 75,000 this year, more than double of all three days last year. It also saw greater participation from foreign fintech delegates than last year, according to Navin Surya from the Payments Council of India in an interview with BQ Prime. Surya is founder of the Global Fintech Fest.

Of course, the Reserve Bank of India and the government’s full participation also helps. The hype was real. And soon, it becomes unreal.

For those outside of Jio World Convention Centre, the introduction of the UPI ATM became a hot topic of discussion. Hitachi Payments Services launched their white label ATMs, not with a card reader, but a screen displaying a dynamic QR code for cash withdrawals. NCR Corporation, the other big ATM manufacturer, displayed their UPI ATMs in collaboration with some public sector banks. People were fascinated that one could hypothetically go to an ATM without their card and still withdraw money using the UPI apps on their phones.

Some finfluencers capitalised on this fascination by doing viral videos at the ATMs. But what they failed to tell their followers (either because they did not know or because facts usually come in the way of fascinating content) is that this technology is at least four years old.

NPCI has been tinkering with UPI-enabled cardless withdrawals from ATMs for some time now, though banks have not been forthcoming with deployment. Technically, any traditional ATM can be enabled with a software patch making it UPI friendly for withdrawals, Arindam Basu of NCR Corporation told BQ Prime in an interview. The technology is likely going to be available at all ATMs in less than a year, he added.

Unofficial estimates suggest that about 15,000 such ATMs already exist in India. But this is a fraction of the more than 2 lakh ATMs deployed in the country.

The bottom line is that this was seen as an exciting new technology, where some social media users called it “the future of fintech”. But then this begets the question whether using a cashless payment method to withdraw cash is truly an “innovation”.

Maybe, this form of UPI usage could come in handy for people who need urgent cash, but don't have their cards, whatever the number of such people might be. Maybe.

What was truly worth the hype though was NPCI’s conversational UPI payments. The technology will allow users to either use a phone call, or their IoT devices (smart speakers, smart watches, smart TVs) to make payments using voice commands. This could potentially make payments as easy as asking Alexa to change the song in your playlist. Two-factor authentication will still require you to manually enter your PIN. But plans are on to use your voice as authentication.

Near-field communication technology (popularly called ‘tap and go’) and voice-based transactions are having their day in the sun, after being around for years. Maybe they will take digital payments and fintech, in general, forward. Maybe.

At the end of the three-day festival, fintechs would likely be flying high with what they saw and felt. The industry, for all its flaws, is still India’s best bet at occupying a commanding position in the global financial revolution. Let’s look forward to 2024, when the fest returns, with hopefully even newer ideas.