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Plastic's troubles

On the road to killing cash, debit cards need a rethink

Challenged by the rise of more flexible digital payment systems like UPI, debit cards need to change—or die

16/04/19

Srikanth Rajagopalan

Transactions through the Unified Payments Interface have been booming—back of the envelope estimates put UPI merchant payments at 36% of debit card payments

The debit card, on the other hand, has been in a state of stagnation, with growth in the number of cards issued, or even the number of transactions, slowing

But while the future of finance may very well be all-digital, the basic debit card still has a role to play in fostering a cash-free world—if the industry gets its act together

Can large banks and card networks revamp the economics of card payments, rethink their customer segmentation and explore new use cases entirely?

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The humble debit card may already be on the verge of obsolescence in India. A couple of months ago, I had questioned the logic of the fee structure for card payments—particularly debit cards—in a piece titled “How to kill cash”. Banks across the board have little incentive to push for greater use of offline card…

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