As RBI move opens new doors for fintech players, M-wallets face tough fight

For the $1.5-billion digital payments ecosystem in the country, the last 48 hours have been quite a roller coaster. While the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) move to remove a key roadblock for interoperability has opened new doors for fintech players, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) disallowing digital payments companies from offering any Aadhaar-based service on their platforms has come as a major setback.

The prohibitive costs of user verification, at times about Rs 700 per customer, are set to affect smaller players who will now have to spend anywhere between Rs 5 million to Rs 2 billion