Is this the start of local countries fighting back in payment systems?

There could be a growing trend for countries in Asia-Pacific (and possibly worldwide) to set their own rules and infrastructures, and restrict the control of the global systems and suppliers. Two countries show what is happening worldwide.

Nepal

Nepal is building a national payment switch, planned for an October launch, which will integrate multiple banks, digital payment vendors such as IPS, ConnectIPS, quick response (QR) codes and other digital ecosystem players into one system, enabling them to transfer funds.  The Central Bank, Nepal Rastra Bank, believes that this will mark a step toward a cashless society.

This national payment switch development is part of the growing independence of Nepal’s payment systems aimed at reducing its dependence on MasterCard and Visa and other systems.

National payment gateway

The payment switch will route individual transaction settlement requests to a central switch, instead of being transmitted through multiple international card schemes.

A new feature will be inter-wallet transactions. The national payment switch will enable the transfer of money from one wallet to another. For example, customers will be able to transfer funds from eSewa to Khalti or vice versa.

The national payment switch will be developed and operated by Nepal Clearing House, a public limited company established in 2008 to facilitate electronic payments and financial transactions within the country. It will be developed in three phases:

1. routing non-card transactions - mobile banking, e-banking, e-wallet or QR codes - to be completed in the first quarter of the current fiscal year
2. development of own national card system
3. transfer of all domestic electronic transactions to the national payment switch.

South Korea

South Korea was the first country to legally ban the monopolies that Apple and Google hold over-payments on in-app purchases. The Telecommunications Business Act, nicknamed 'Anti Google Law', will enable developers to use their own billing systems for in-app purchases rather than have to use Apple’s or Google’s, etc.

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CTMfile take: Global systems and suppliers cannot assume all local countries will accept their dominance.