Boku, a prominent global provider of local payment solutions, has successfully migrated Microsoft’s direct carrier billing (DCB) service for Three UK. This accomplishment expands Boku’s presence in the UK and sets a historic precedent for both Boku and Microsoft. 

It’s the first time services have been smoothly moved from another provider. Boku Inc. is not your average payment technology company. It’s a global leader in providing local payment solutions, making transactions more accessible and convenient. But who is Boku, and why is its partnership with Microsoft such a big deal?

A Game-Changing Migration

Boku’s collaboration with Microsoft in the UK is no small feat. They’ve already joined forces with three major carriers, but adding Three UK is a game-changer. Why? Because it represents the first time that Boku and Microsoft have seamlessly shifted services from another provider. 

This migration allows other global merchants to consider Boku, their go-to payment solution provider. Like having the option to switch from your existing provider to Boku – the kind of innovation we’re discussing here.

Mark Stannard, Boku’s Chief Business Officer, expressed his joy at the successful migration of Microsoft’s DCB services and highlighted that this decision by one of the world’s largest companies to choose Boku as their local payment solution provider is a testament to Boku’s strength in this area.

Boku’s History

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in London, UK, Boku Inc. has steadily risen to prominence in mobile payment solutions. Its mobile-first payments network offers various payment methods, including mobile wallets, direct carrier billing, and real-time payment schemes. Its impressive reach sets Boku apart, connecting with over 7 billion mobile payment accounts in more than 60 countries – all through a single integration.

Companies That Use Boku

The list of global giants that trust Boku is awe-inspiring. Here are a few tech behemoths that rely on Boku to simplify user sign-up, acquire new paying users, and combat fraud:

• Amazon
• Apple
• Facebook/Meta
• Google
• Microsoft
• Netflix
• PayPal
• Sony
• Spotify
• Tencent 

One of the most remarkable aspects of Boku’s services is its versatility. When shopping on Amazon, streaming content on Netflix, or making in-app purchases in mobile games, chances are you’ve benefited from Boku’s payment solutions.

The impact of Boku’s innovative payment solutions isn’t limited to telecommunications or tech giants; it extends to various industries, including the thriving casino sector. Boku’s simplicity, accessibility, and security have made it an attractive choice for online casinos and their patrons.

In online gambling, convenience is very important. That’s why many players prefer reputable Boku casinos like Hot Streak Slots and Jackpot Village for secure and convenient payment options. With Boku’s direct carrier billing, casino enthusiasts can easily make deposits using their mobile phone accounts, eliminating the need for credit cards or lengthy registration processes.

Countries Reached by Boku

Boku’s success story isn’t limited to its UK base. Global footprint cements Boku’s reputation as a leading payment industry player, and the company has expanded its presence globally, with offices in these countries: 

• United States
• India
• Brazil
• China
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Singapore
• Spain
• Taiwan
• Vietnam

The Future of Payments

In the fast-paced world of technology, partnerships like the one between Boku and Microsoft are the spark for change. This migration signifies a shift in the industry’s landscape, where convenience, security, and accessibility are paramount.

All consumers want payment processes to be smooth and hassle-free. Boku’s innovative approach to payments aligns perfectly with this aspiration. With its extensive network and commitment to simplifying the payment experience, Boku is poised to continue shaping the future of payment technology.

Disclaimer: Gambling involves an element of financial risk and maybe addictive. Please play responsibly and at your own risk. This post contains material that may or may not be legal in your country. Please play/not play subject to applicable law.

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Fintech giant Paytm reported its Q1FY24 results later on Friday in which it mentioned that its net loss narrowed to Rs 357 crore for the quarter ending June 30, 2023. It reported Rs 644 crore net loss a year ago period. Led by the payments and loan distribution business growth revenue jumped 39% YoY to Rs 2,342 crores in comparison to Rs 1,680 crore reported in Q1FY23. However net loss has widened when compared to Rs 168 crore reported in the preceding March quarter of fiscal 2022-23.

“Led by payments and loan distribution business growth, our revenue jumped 39% YoY to Rs 2,342 crore, and EBITDA before ESOP grew to Rs 84 crore. We continue to see consistent growth in profitability, with contribution margin expanding to 56% of revenues,” said Paytm in its earnings announcement.

Paytm’s contribution margin increased to 56% and credit distribution business reported a 167 percent year-on-year growth for the June quarter disbursing Rs 14,845 crore in loan value. Its merchant subscriptions are doubled with up to 79 lakh merchant subscriptions till June 2023. Growth drivers in the business reported by Paytm are Increasing adoption of technology by merchants, such as Soundbox, and Card Machines, Innovations in the payment ecosystem, ample opportunity for growth, and a Bonds trading platform for retail investors launched by Paytm Money.

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The Forex market isn’t just another exchange market. It is an integral part of global finance that significantly influences the dynamic nature of currency exchange.

If investors and traders want to be profitable, they have to consider the future of Forex.

Understanding Forex’s future means that you will have significant profit from the market. With advancements in automation technology and crypto’s rise, Forex shifts are inevitable.

Technological Advancements and Automation

With the rise of AI technologies, Forex is bound to be affected. Therefore using a Forex broker that keeps its clients up-to-date on currency symbols and names is crucial for success in this field.

Introduction to Algorithmic Trading

Algorithmic trading involves using pre-programmed instructions to automatically execute trading orders based on predetermined criteria, such as price, volume, or timing. It eliminates manual intervention and allows for faster execution and greater precision.

Automated Systems and Trading Tools

Automated systems, including trading robots or expert advisors (EAs), use algorithms to analyze market data and execute trades on behalf of traders. These systems can provide real-time market insights, generate trading signals, and automatically execute trades based on predefined criteria.

Big Data Analytics

The availability of big data in forex trading has opened up new opportunities for analysis and decision-making. By analyzing large volumes of structured and unstructured data, traders can gain deeper insights into market trends, sentiment analysis, and economic indicators, enabling more informed trading decisions.

Rise of Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets

Crypto is almost like a trend that has gone too far. With such significant and considerable influence, it no undoubtedly affects the Forex market.

Cryptocurrencies as a New Asset Class

Cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, have gained significant attention and popularity in recent years. Their decentralized nature and potential for high returns have attracted traders and investors, leading to their integration into the forex market.

Increased Volatility and Liquidity

Cryptocurrencies exhibit higher levels of volatility compared to traditional fiat currencies. This volatility presents opportunities and challenges for forex traders, as it allows for potentially higher profits and carries increased risks.

Greater Acceptance and Integration

As cryptocurrencies continue gaining mainstream acceptance, we expect to see increased integration into forex trading platforms. This may involve the inclusion of more cryptocurrencies as tradable assets and the developing of specialized trading tools and platforms for cryptocurrencies.

Risks and Challenges

Trading cryptocurrencies in the forex market comes with certain risks and challenges, including high volatility, regulatory uncertainties, potential for market manipulation, and cybersecurity threats. Traders must exercise caution and develop risk management strategies when trading cryptocurrency.

The Shift in Regulatory Landscape

In this section, we will explore the evolving regulatory environment and its impact on the future of forex trading. We will discuss potential regulatory trends, such as increased oversight and transparency, and highlight the importance of understanding and adapting to changing regulatory requirements in the forex trading industry.

Introduction to Regulatory Changes

The regulatory landscape governing forex trading is constantly evolving. Regulatory bodies worldwide are placing increased emphasis on ensuring fair, transparent, and secure trading practices. This shift aims to protect investors, maintain market integrity, and reduce financial risks.

Protection of Retail Investors

There is a growing focus on protecting retail investors participating in forex trading. Regulatory bodies may introduce measures to safeguard retail investors, such as imposing leverage limits, enhancing client fund protection, and providing clear risk warnings.

Enhanced Transparency and Reporting

Regulatory trends in forex trading emphasize the importance of transparency and accurate reporting. Authorities may introduce stricter reporting requirements, disclosure obligations, and more comprehensive record-keeping practices to enhance market transparency and integrity.

Risk Management and Adaptability

Adapting to changing regulatory requirements is essential for successful forex trading. Traders and brokers should implement robust risk management practices, including staying updated on regulatory changes, implementing internal controls, and adjusting trading strategies to comply with evolving rules.

Global Economic and Geopolitical Factors

Global economic and geopolitical issues affect currency trading. They have influence over the forex market and the strategies that traders use.

Economic Indicators

Global economic indicators, such as GDP growth, inflation rates, employment data, and central bank policies, significantly impact forex markets. These factors can affect currency values and exchange rates, creating trading opportunities or risks.

Political Instability

Geopolitical events, such as elections, political conflicts, or changes in government, can create market volatility and affect currency values. Traders need to consider the potential impact of geopolitical events on currency markets and adjust their trading strategies accordingly.

Market Analysis and News

Staying informed about global economic and geopolitical developments is crucial for forex traders. Regularly monitoring market analysis, economic reports, and news updates helps traders assess potential risks and opportunities in the forex market.

Economic Calendar and Events 

Forex traders utilize economic calendars to track upcoming economic events, central bank announcements, and geopolitical events that could impact currency markets. This allows traders to plan their strategies and adjust their positions accordingly.

Conclusion

With so many things happening simultaneously, keeping up with everything is challenging.

However, this is the price a new Forex trader must pay to succeed in this cutthroat market.

The post Revolutionizing Currency Trading_ Forecasting Future Trends in Forex appeared first on The Tech Outlook.

Ever since the Government of India launched the “Digital India” program on July 1, 2015; the wave of digitalization kept on flowing constantly. From cashless payments and online payment methods in almost every domain, India is one of the most highly digitally functioning countries.

Recent data analysis reports from MyGovIndia state that India stands as one of the top 5 countries when it comes to digital payments. According to the report, India saw a digital transaction of 89.5 million in total, in the financial year 2022.

The report speculated that this amounts to 46 percent of the total digital payments by the top five digitally paying countries. India’s digital payment statistics are more than the net digital payment by the other four countries.

Brazil, which stands in second place, saw a total of 29,2 million transactions in 2022. China on the other hand saw 17.6 million transactions. While Thailand stands in fourth place with 16.5 million transactions, South Korea had 8 million digital transactions in 2022.

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, earlier expressed this year that India is the leading nation in the digital payments sector. He emphasized that India’s rural economy is undergoing a major transformation.

RBI experts are of the view that India is achieving new milestones both in terms of value and volume, in regard to digital payment.

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Payments with UPI have become the default payment mode nowadays, especially in the past few years. Though the UPI payments were only possible after app installation only on smartphones. But now this has been changed by Nokia as the company has made UPI payments possible for everyone by introducing handsets with built-in UPI apps in it.

Thank you @NPCI_NPCI & @gupshup for helping us bring UPI payments to even more mobile phone users across India. All-new Nokia 105 & Nokia 106 4G now available with built-in UPI apps. Ab har phone se karo pay. pic.twitter.com/ts0uJiEcBb

— Nokia Mobile India (@NokiamobileIN) May 20, 2023

The UPI on the two phones is enabled by NPCI and Gupshup. With NPCI there are four options for making payments- calling an IVR number, using an app on feature phones, making payments through missed calls, and proximity sound-based payments. While the app built by Gupshup is claimed to leverage messaging instead of a data plan for making payments.

Nokia 105 & Nokia 106 4G: Specifications and pricing

The display of these smartphones uses IPS LCD technology with better viewing angles and color reproduction. Nokia 105 is equipped with a 1000mAh battery while Nokia 106 4G is equipped with a 1450mAh battery. Both smartphones come with wireless FM radio and an in-built MP3 player.

Nokia 105 is priced at Rs.1,299 while Nokia 106 is priced at Rs.2,199.

Nokia’s this UPI feature initiative will allow it to expand its UPI facilities to more users who cannot afford to buy a smartphone. Hence these latest devices will allow users to enjoy seamless digital transactions to on affordable devices.

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Making transactions via UPI has been the most common and easiest way for the past few years. Since the concept of digital money has been promoted frequently in India, many users now prefer to pay through the UPI system only as just a tap and you can easily transfer the amount to another person’s bank account. We all are aware of PPIs (Prepaid Payment Instruments) that allow users to store money and make payments. PPIs in India include Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay.

If you make UPI merchant transactions using PPI then this news might affect you as NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) has suggested PPI fees of up to 1.1% be applied to all merchant transactions of over Rs.2,000 made via UPI beginning on April 1^st.

NCPI, UPI’s governing body, said in a recent circular, “ Interchange at the rate of 1.1% of the transaction value/amount (using prepaid payment instruments or PPI) shall apply to payments made to all online merchants, large merchants and small offline merchants having transaction value/amount greater than Rs. 2,000.”

NCPI will be reviewing charges on or before September 30^th, 2023, till then, this newly introduced structure will be the norm for UPI transactions made in India. Though the charge won’t be applicable in terms of P2P (peer-to-peer) and P2M (peer-to-merchant) transactions between a bank account and a PPI wallet. The PPI issuer will pay 15bps as an advanced wallet loading service charge to the remitter bank for loading transaction values over Rs. 2000.

Even though the upper limit for UPI merchant transaction charges has been set to 1.1%, not every transaction above Rs.2,000 will be charged the same PPI fee.

UPI Merchant charges on transactions above Rs.2,000 :

• Telecom- 0.7%
• Mutual fund- 1%
• Utilities/Post office- 0.7%
• Education-0.7%
• Government-1%
• Supermarket-0.9%
• Fuel-0.5%
• Insurance- 1%
• Railways-1%
• Agriculture-0.7%

Apart from this, the merchants were already paying MDR (merchant discount rate) charges of up to 0.9% on Debit & Credit cards transactions

The charges mentioned above are for the merchants only and the customers won’t have to pay any charges but since the merchants with items above Rs.2000 need to pay these charges it could be said that these charges will be passed to the end customer.

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On February 21, 2023, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, will witness the launch of the UPI-PayNow linkage between the two countries.

PM of India @narendramodi and PM of Singapore @leehsienloong to witness launch of #UPI–#PayNow linkage between the two countries by Governor @DasShaktikanta and MD @MAS_sg on February 21, 2023 at 11.00 am.

Live at: https://t.co/HGfgHw9J6s#RBI #RBIGovernor #RBItoday #PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/VYOA6bk4va

— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) February 20, 2023

This event will take place at 11:00 am IST. And will be hosted by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, and the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Mr. Ravi Menon. The event will be live-streamed on YouTube.

The UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant step towards strengthening the economic ties between India and Singapore. It will enable seamless transactions between the two countries, benefitting individuals and businesses alike.

The UPI-PayNow linkage will allow users of both payment systems to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis. This linkage will also enable users to use their mobile numbers or UPI IDs to make transactions, making it convenient and user-friendly.

The presence of the Prime Ministers of India and Singapore at the event underscores the importance of the UPI-PayNow linkage. It highlights the commitment of both countries to strengthening their economic relationship and promoting digital payments.

The event will also be an opportunity for both leaders to discuss other areas of cooperation and explore new avenues of partnership.

This launch of the UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone in the history of Indo-Singapore economic ties. It is a step in the right direction towards realizing the full potential of digital payments. And creating a seamless and efficient payment ecosystem.

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According to a report by Reuters, the major market indexes on Wall Street opened down on Friday due to concerns that rising inflation in the backdrop of a robust US economy would lead the Federal Reserve to choose the path of caution and maintain its strict monetary policy throughout the year.

SNAPSHOT Wall St opens lower as fears of hawkish Fed grow https://t.co/KK2UkuAIo6 pic.twitter.com/XfpN6kg1H2

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2023

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 19.84 points, or 0.06%, at the open to 33,677.01. The S&P 500 (.SPX) opened lower by 13.02 points, or 0.32%, at 4,077.39, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 78.33 points, or 0.66%, to 11,777.51 at the opening bell.

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CRED was founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah and is considered as one of the fastest – startup to acquire unicorn status in India . The company started as credit card bill payments app and now supports utility bill payments via CRED Pay , P2P lending via CRED Mint , CRED store , CRED Cash for loans . CRED has also recently launched UPI and In-store Payments feature too .

Tipster Ravisutanjani has revealed on his twitter handle that in FY22 the company has over $6.4 Billion valuation and 11.2 million users .

CRED is one of the Most Valued (Also Hyped) FinTech Startup with over $6.4 Billion Valuation & 11.2 Million Users

Explainer Thread on Numbers & CRED’s Business Model

— Ravisutanjani (@Ravisutanjani) February 13, 2023

Further through explainer threads tipster also explained CRED’s FY22 results and business model .  In which he revealed that the company’s Revenue from operations grew to Rs. 393.6 crore which was Rs. 88.6 crore in the previous fiscal . CRED has reported a loss of Rs. 1280 crore in FY22 . CRED has spent approximately Rs. 975.8 crore on Marketing and promotional expenses which accounts for 57.3% of total expenses and employee benefits at Rs.307.6 crore .

The company has also spent Rs. 158.6 crore on Payment Gateway charges along with contribution of around 1.5% in overall UPI Transactions volume in India . CRED was also the 3^rd  largest BBPS agent Institution in January 2023 hinting that the users are preferably opting for CRED for mobile recharges , electricity , FASTag & other bill payments after Google Pay & Amazon .

According to Economic Times , Kunal Shah said , “ The investment we have made in building our brand , community  and products has been a conscious choice , and we have not deviated from that plan . Revenue growth and bringing down losses is going to be a norm going forward , not just because this year we have to do that . We are well positioned because of the choice we made of going after a certain customer segment and the monetization avenues we are focusing on .”

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International trips mean the headache of making payments in foreign countries. But not now because PhonePe has brought exciting news for all users. You would be able to pay foreign merchants using UPI. PhonePe has become the first fintech company to enable international UPI transactions.

But the question arises how it will work?

Whenever you make a transaction using a QR Code, foreign currency will be deducted from the bank account.

This does not enable you to do online transactions in all international countries but by now it has only been enabled for UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal, and Bhutan. And with the passing days, it will be rolled out for other countries too. It will encourage travelers to travel abroad without any dependency on Forex and Credit cards. For this users will have to activate their bank account on the app. This can be either done before traveling or after in a foreign country.

PhonePe has the highest share in UPI transactions and this step is no doubt going to add another advantage for the users. The market’s 96.4 % of UPI payments are made using PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, and CRED Pay according to the data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for the month of December last year. PhonePe constitutes 49% share of UPI transaction which is the highest among all and Google Play constitute 34%.

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