Sudhanshu Chatterjee

NSDL vs CDSL – Same Job, Different Game! Both power India’s stock market backend — from demat to e-KYC — but their business models? Totally different! 🔹 CDSL = Retail King Earns from lakhs of small investors via brokers & fintech apps. 🔹 NSDL = Institutional Giant Backs mutual funds, FIIs, insurers & pension funds. 📊 Scale & Reach 💰 Assets: NSDL ₹510L Cr 🆚 CDSL ₹79L Cr 👥 Accounts: CDSL 15.86 Cr 🆚 NSDL 4.05 Cr 👉 Big money sits with NSDL, but volume is with CDSL. 💵 Profits & Margins (FY25 est.): CDSL: ₹526 Cr profit on ₹1,082 Cr revenue (🟢 44% margin) NSDL: ₹343 Cr profit on ₹1,535 Cr revenue (🟡 22% margin) ✅ CDSL is leaner, more profitable per ₹ earned! 📈 Valuations & Growth 📌 EPS: CDSL ₹25.2 🆚 NSDL ₹17.1 📌 P/E: CDSL ~67x 🆚 NSDL IPO ~44x 📌 Growth (FY23–25): NSDL leads in revenue & profit CAGR 🏦 Network CDSL = 581 Members, fintech-first NSDL = 296 Members, deeper govt & institutional ties 📝 NSDL IPO Highlights * Pure OFS – no new capital * Promoters trimming stake (SEBI 15% rule) * Not for funding growth – more of a regulatory clean-up 💡 Investor Takeaway: 🔹 CDSL = Retail boom + higher profit margins 🔹 NSDL = Institutional trust + deeper integration Both are core to India’s financial infrastructure. 💼📊 no stock reco

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NRIs’ remittances to India have grown at 10.3% CAGR in US-dollar terms since 2001. Only one other item, software services exports, has outpaced this, at ~15% CAGR over the same period. How big are remittances? They were about $125 bn in FY25, larger than India’s biggest merchandise export category, engineering goods (~$117 bn). In effect, India’s largest “export” is its people: they earn dollars abroad and remit them home. Growth in remittances from the Gulf has softened; oil-linked wages aren’t compounding at 10%+. That implies roughly one-third of the remittance basket is unlikely to sustain 10% growth. To keep overall remittances growing at historical rates, flows from services-driven hubs (the US, UK, Singapore, etc.) would have to rise at 12%+ in USD terms, a tall ask requiring comparable NRI income growth. Therefore, one of the largest and most supportive components of India’s balance of payments (BoP), remittances, may have reached a cyclical peak. If this coincides with a softening in services exports, the adjustment would likely require either a sharp import compression or a new export engine, neither of which is yet clearly in sight.

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The release of National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI)’s UPI API Security Guidelines (OC-215/2025-26) represents a transformative leap in how banks and payment providers must safeguard India’s real-time rails. These rules are no longer a once-and-done exercise. Compliance now demands an operational approach that touches every stage of API delivery. From how you design and build your integrations to how you run and maintain them in production. It’s also not enough to generate alerts; teams must resolve issues immediately and demonstrate proof of security controls at all times. On top of that, continuous audits will become the norm. Banks and payment providers will undergo periodic audits of their API configurations, application code, and operational processes. Go through the carousel below to understand which processes need to be implemented to be compliant with NCPI Guidelines. #upi #india #compliance #esg #banks

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🔥 An Introduction to Cards in Payments from Darshana Manikkuwadura (Dash) 🇬🇧 🇱🇰 💳 Cards remain at the heart of the global payments ecosystem. Whether it’s credit, debit, prepaid, or charge cards — each type has unique mechanics that shape how value flows between consumers, banks, and merchants. Let’s break it down 👇 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 Every card in your wallet carries essential information: ✔ Card Type (Issuing): Cashback, rewards, travel, corporate. ✔ Bank Identification Number (BIN): Identifies the issuer and card category. ✔ Issuing Bank: The financial institution providing the card (e.g., Citi, Chase). ✔ Card Network: The rails connecting issuers and acquirers (Visa, Mastercard, American Express). ✔ Card Type (Acquiring): Determines how the merchant side processes the payment. These elements come together to define how your transactions are routed, authorized, and settled. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 1️⃣ Charge Cards → Pay Later in Full (e.g., Amex Green) 2️⃣ Credit Cards → Pay Later in Full/Partial (e.g., Visa Signature) 3️⃣ Debit Cards → Pay Now (e.g., Mastercard Debit) 4️⃣ Prepaid Cards → Pay Before (e.g., Travel Forex / Visa Prepaid) Beyond these, we see specialized categories: ✔ General Purpose Payment Cards (GPPC) ✔ Virtual & One-Time Use Cards ✔ Corporate & Purchasing Cards ✔ Co-Branded & Affinity Cards ✔ Private Label Credit Cards ✔ Prepaid & Stored Value Cards Each is tailored for different segments — from consumers managing daily spend to enterprises streamlining procurement. 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐩 𝐯𝐬. 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐩 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 4️⃣ Open Loop (4-Party Model): ✔ Most widely used worldwide ✔ Cardholder → Issuing Bank → Card Network → Acquiring Bank → Merchant ✔ Scales rapidly across geographies ✔ Examples: Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay 3️⃣ Closed Loop (3-Party Model): ✔ Fewer intermediaries, direct relationships ✔ Issuer = Acquirer in most cases ✔ Easier to manage but harder to scale ✔ Examples: American Express, JCB, Diners Club This distinction is fundamental: open loops bring global interoperability, while closed loops deliver tighter control and direct value capture. 🌍 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 Cards are more than plastic or digital tokens — they represent trust, infrastructure, and economic connectivity. Understanding card structures helps innovators, merchants, and regulators anticipate how payments will evolve in the coming years, from embedded finance to tokenized rails. 🚀 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐔𝐩: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 In my next post, I’ll dive deeper into issuers, acquirers, card networks, payment gateways, and aggregators — and how they enable card transactions at scale. Stay tuned. 👉 What’s your go-to card type — Credit, Debit, or Prepaid? Drop your thoughts below ⬇️ #Payments #Fintech #Cards #OpenLoop #ClosedLoop #Innovation #darshanamanikkuwadura Darshana Manikkuwadura (Dash) 🇬🇧 🇱🇰

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WhatsLoan-046 Bharat Series Sept 2025 BNPL as Convenience Commerce 1. Why RBI is Restricting BNPL RBI’s stance is shaped by risk, regulation, and consumer protection: • Unsecured Lending in Disguise: BNPL looks like a simple checkout option, but in reality it extends credit without the safeguards of a loan (no KYC, no credit bureau reporting in some cases). • Weak Oversight: Payment aggregators were running quasi-lending operations without NBFC licenses or RBI approval. • Systemic Risk: If left unchecked, millions of micro-loans can build up hidden credit exposure outside regulated lending channels. • Consumer Protection: Customers may not realize that delayed payments incur penalties, or that defaults impact their credit. Hence, RBI treats BNPL as lending rather than just a “convenience commerce and payment option.” 2. Why BNPL Can Feel Like “Convenience Commerce” (30–90 Days) • For short-term deferrals (15–90 days, single payment), BNPL resembles a checkout convenience, like “pay at delivery” or a free grace period. • These are usually zero-cost to customers, funded by merchant discount rates (MDR) or fees. • From a consumer’s perspective, it feels like commerce facilitation, not debt. But the catch: even this short-term exposure involves the BNPL company advancing money to merchants and carrying repayment risk, which is credit in regulatory terms. 3. When BNPL Becomes Like Credit Cards (Up to 12 Months) • When repayment is structured into EMIs (3–12 months), BNPL mirrors credit card EMI products. • RBI expects: • Credit bureau reporting • Interest/charges disclosure • Regulatory capital and provisioning (like banks/NBFCs) • This aligns BNPL with regulated revolving/term credit products. 4. Beyond 12 Months → Treated as Unsecured Lending • Anything beyond 12 months clearly ceases to be “short-term convenience.” • It becomes a personal loan in EMI disguise, needing: • NBFC license or partnership with a regulated lender • Standard loan agreements • Fair lending practices (APR disclosure, collections framework) 5. The Regulatory Logic • 0–90 days → Convenience commerce (but RBI still cautious, since money is advanced). • 3–12 months → Treated like credit cards/consumer durable loans, with EMI structure. • 12+ months → Pure unsecured lending, only permissible through NBFC/bank partnerships. In effect, RBI is saying: If it looks like credit, designed like credit, and carries repayment risk, it must be regulated as credit.

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National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI)’s NACH 3.0 rollout this July transforms the backbone of recurring payments—salary credits, SIPs, EMIs—with real-time processing, PGP encryption, and instant dispute resolution . This isn’t just upgrade. It’s infrastructure redefining predictability and trust: 💰 Employees see same-day salary in bank accounts. 📈 Investors get SIPs executed reliably—even during volatile markets. 🚗 Borrowers can trust EMIs are debited safely and on time. At scale, precision + speed = user confidence. And user confidence powers retention, not just acquisition. Building fintech products atop this train track? Focus on capabilities like ping-based reminders, bad-debt mitigation tools, or real-time subscription switches. #NACH3 #DigitalPayments #FintechIndia #FinancialInfrastructure #RecurringPayments #RealTimeFinance #UserTrust #ProductInnovation #FutureOfPayments #NPCI National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI)

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