“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.”
– Boris Pasternak
Lifeline
Payments firms set out to disrupt traditional payment modes, but have now partnered with banks to launch credit cards
This gives payments companies a much-needed revenue stream, while giving banks access to credit-worthy customers
Banks will also foot the bill for the generous rewards payments companies want to shower on users
Could this finally unlock the full potential of India’s credit card space?
A few years ago, around 2016-17, everyone was predicting an imminent disruption in the payments space. Traditional payments products by banks, they said, would be overthrown by younger, nimbler payments companies.
Leading the pack of would-be soothsayers was Nandan Nilekani, payments maven and architect of the government’s unique ID system Aadhaar. “All banking products will be disrupted,” he said ominously in 2016.
Then came Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm*.
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