<p class="title">Launch of new services like payments over whatsapp may have resulted in regulatory arbitrage, but it will eventually converge with the rest of the industry, a senior HDFC Bank official said today.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There will be some arbitrage which is there from a regulatory or some of those (perspective), which I think will converge over a period of time," its deputy managing director Paresh Sukthankar said speaking at a conference organised by Outlook Money here.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The comments come amid an extremely heated debate wherein the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been accused of creating exceptions in order to aid Whatsapp launch payments service.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Home-grown mobile wallet company Paytms Vijay Shekhar Sharma has termed Facebook, which owns Whatsapp, an "evil" company following this.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Whatsapp is the most popular instant messaging app in the country with over 220 million subscribers. There are other players like Google Tez and Truecaller which are also offering UPI-based payment services.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Without elaborating on what is the arbitrage, Sukthankar said it is difficult for it to continue in an inter-connected financial services system like ours.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"You cant allow in today's highly connected payment system, a weak link, which exposes the rest of the system to risks," he said, adding that critical issues including dispute resolution mechanism need to be addressed.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sukthankar, whose bank is one of the few with whom Whatsapp has tied up with for UPI-based payments, said lenders do not have much to lose as they anyway will have all the ownership over the customer and the data.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He, however, warned that over a longer period, full-service banks may lose out to digital payment alternatives if they can't offer the same level of service and user experience.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But so far, the added advantage of borrowing and other services will make the customer stay with the bank.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Despite an increasing penetration, digital technologies will not make bank branches irrelevant in the future," he said, adding that changes will happen in factors like its size.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He said many customers still prefer transacting at a branch or the presence of a physical branch gives others the confidence and trust to do business with it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, because of the cheap costs of digital alternatives, lenders should push customers to adopt such avenues, he added. </p>
<p class="title">Launch of new services like payments over whatsapp may have resulted in regulatory arbitrage, but it will eventually converge with the rest of the industry, a senior HDFC Bank official said today.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There will be some arbitrage which is there from a regulatory or some of those (perspective), which I think will converge over a period of time," its deputy managing director Paresh Sukthankar said speaking at a conference organised by Outlook Money here.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The comments come amid an extremely heated debate wherein the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been accused of creating exceptions in order to aid Whatsapp launch payments service.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Home-grown mobile wallet company Paytms Vijay Shekhar Sharma has termed Facebook, which owns Whatsapp, an "evil" company following this.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Whatsapp is the most popular instant messaging app in the country with over 220 million subscribers. There are other players like Google Tez and Truecaller which are also offering UPI-based payment services.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Without elaborating on what is the arbitrage, Sukthankar said it is difficult for it to continue in an inter-connected financial services system like ours.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"You cant allow in today's highly connected payment system, a weak link, which exposes the rest of the system to risks," he said, adding that critical issues including dispute resolution mechanism need to be addressed.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sukthankar, whose bank is one of the few with whom Whatsapp has tied up with for UPI-based payments, said lenders do not have much to lose as they anyway will have all the ownership over the customer and the data.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He, however, warned that over a longer period, full-service banks may lose out to digital payment alternatives if they can't offer the same level of service and user experience.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But so far, the added advantage of borrowing and other services will make the customer stay with the bank.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Despite an increasing penetration, digital technologies will not make bank branches irrelevant in the future," he said, adding that changes will happen in factors like its size.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He said many customers still prefer transacting at a branch or the presence of a physical branch gives others the confidence and trust to do business with it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, because of the cheap costs of digital alternatives, lenders should push customers to adopt such avenues, he added. </p>