Welcome to The Top Up! Delivered every Wednesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in fintech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by registering here.
Hello there,
This is the last issue of The Top Up for 2021, as we’re pausing for our year-end break starting next week.
With 2022 around the corner, I’ll be treating myself by purchasing a yoga mat and a skipping rope from Amazon – the items are already sitting in my cart.
In all likelihood, I’ll be making the transaction via UPI (unified payments interface), a payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India. It’s my choice for online transactions over debit or credit cards whenever I’m in the country. In fact, since I got my credit card three years ago, I have never used it.
With a boom in UPI payments in India, credit card transactions are on the decline, and I assumed that this was true in the rest of the world, too.
But that’s apparently not the case. Cards continue to be the dominant payment method for many others globally, and stakeholders including merchants, card companies, and banks are fighting it out to make the most of it.
Financial services firms like Mastercard and Visa set the fees that retailers must pay for processing card payments, which they revise from time to time. While small businesses can do little to negotiate this fee, big players like Amazon can easily turn the tables on card companies.
In this week’s big story, my colleague Melissa Goh breaks down Amazon’s upcoming ban on Visa credit cards in the UK, signaling that the power balance is shifting between merchants, banks, and payment firms.
This could also be an opportunity for other payment providers such as digital wallets and buy now, pay later players to gain more traction. As for Visa, it still has until early next year to resolve its issues with Amazon. Read on to know more.
This week, analyst Simon Huang also breaks down Brazil-based Nubank’s success in Latin America following its stock debut on the New York Stock Exchange and what Southeast Asia’s digital banks can learn from it.
A Happy New Year to all of you in advance! We’ll see you again in January.
— Samreen
THE BIG STORY
The Amazon-Visa standoff: What’s the endgame?
THE HOT TAKE
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
FYI
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
