2024-09-24 19:44:00
At the Global FinTech Fest in Mumbai, the world’s largest financial technology (FinTech) conference, which attracted 100,000 attendees this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the FinTech miracle he achieved with UPI. This is the Unified Payments Interface, a national A2A (account to account) payment system, developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the corresponding company of DIAS in India.
At the conference, where I was a speaker, the Prime Minister of India described his country’s impressive economic “miracle” achieved through the “Jan-Dhan Yojana” program. This program is recognized internationally as the largest financial inclusion initiative, as it has succeeded in offering banking services to an additional 530 million Indians, of whom 295 million are women, through the mass diffusion of digital payments.
A key tool of this strategy was UPI, which is now the largest instant payment system in the world, with 14 billion transactions in July 2024 alone In Greece, we have our own IRIS, which handled 5.3 million in the same month, but more beyond comparisons of population and geographical areas, the only question is: Are we ready to follow a similar path.
The support of the government of India and the central bank was central to the implementation of UPI. They created a supportive regulatory framework, encouraging widespread adoption of UPI and reducing transaction costs. At the same time, advertising campaigns and initiatives were organized to promote the value of digital payments. Much the same happened with PIX in Brazil and PromptPay in Thailand, which together with UPI are the three largest A2A payment systems in the world.
While visiting the Mumbai market, I saw how UPI has come to the fore in everyday life: no hawker accepts payment without a UPI QR sticker on their counter. In cafes and restaurants, customers pay by scanning the QR at the POS instead of cash. In Greece, we must intensify our efforts in this direction, to accept the mass and integrate these technologies in our daily life.
UPI’s success in India highlights the importance of government and central bank support for widespread adoption of digital payments. In Greece, the recent legislation on the use of direct payments by volunteers is an important step and complements the 2016 legislation on the mandatory use of POS.
IRIS, like UPI, began its journey in 2016. Initially, it was offered under different names in banks’ mobile banking applications, which significantly limited its potential. Taking over the administrative responsibility of the company in January 2021, we designed and implemented together with the banks a clear strategy to highlight IRIS products, which have a common name, modernize technical features, improve the user experience to significantly and greatly enrich the functionalities available. address a wider audience.
Today, IRIS has three products: IRIS Person to Person (P2P), Person to Business (P2B) and Commerce. For the past four years, they have experienced triple digit growth rates every year. IRIS P2P has 3.1 million users, from 700,000 users and 4 partner banks in 2020, and is offered by 12 financial institutions. Since there are 6.2 million active users of mobile banking applications in Greece, there is scope to double its users. IRIS P2B from 50,000 users/freelancers in 2020 550,000 today, and IRIS Commerce from 100 online shops in 2020 serving 6,200, including AADE.
In 2020, IRIS transactions accounted for 0.5% of transactions handled by DIAS. Today, that figure has risen to 11.6%, along with a 54% increase in the company’s total trading volume. There is certainly room for further development, especially with the new European Regulation on direct payments, which will come into full force in 2025.
The dynamics of IRIS are promising. Working with banks and businesses in Greece will bring positive results and we expect full acceptance of instant payments within the next two years. With the continued support of the government, the central bank and the banks, we can achieve even more. The example of India shows us the way.
At the end of my trip, I received from my colleague as a gift a small statue of the god Ganesha, known in the Hindu religion as “the remover of obstacles.” Looking at it on my desk, I wish IRIS all the best in its activity and in our efforts to speed up the full integration of Greece in the future of digital payments, for the benefit of the Greek economy, businesses and citizens. They say that even the longest journey begins with the first step. We are now on our own journey to further integrate digital payments in Greece.
*Mr Stavroula Kambouridou is managing director, DIAS SA
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