China, India and Thailand payments surge ahead

The retail payment landscape continues to change dramatically in Asia Pacific as players focus on innovation.

China

In China, the volume of transactions from non-bank mobile payments has surpassed that of transactions from bank cards since 2015 and the penetration rate of non-bank mobile payment usage in China reached 90% by the end of 2017.

There is a wide acceptance of mobile payments and cashless transactions have become commonplace in the country. In recent years, the increasing penetration of smartphones and mobile services, rapid development of e-commerce, high level of consumer readiness, relatively low credit card penetration, and proliferation of QR code usage are the main reasons for the higher adoption of non-bank mobile payments.

India

Digital banking penetration in India is relatively low. However, in the last few years, the Indian government and banks have emphasised and pushed the digital economy through the demonetisation efforts and encouraged people to use their mobile phones for banking.

The volume of mobile banking payment transactions almost doubled from 977 million in 2016 to 1.87 billion in 2017. The increase is huge and showed that mobile banking payment is becoming more mainstream and there is lesser dependency on physical bank visits. Also, 2017-18 marked a historical moment that the volume of mobile banking payment transactions surpassed credit card usage for the first time.

Thailand

Over the past seven years, the payment systems landscape has changed tremendously and consumers in Thailand now have more alternative to do payments. Among all payment channels, mobile banking payment volumes increased from 585 million in 2016 to 1.23 billion in 2017 with an astonishing growth rate of 110%. The transition to digital banking also provides Thailand banks an opportunity to expand their current products, increase interest income and improve their operational cost efficiencies.

China reached higher adoption of non-bank mobile payments

Figure 1.  Payment Transaction in China

India witnessed one of the fastest growths in mobile banking payment over the years

Figure 2.  Payment Transaction in India

India witnessed one of the fastest growths in mobile banking payment over the years

Figure 3.  Payment Transaction in Thailand