How Fintech is building the scope for the next generation!

How did India become digitally inclined for making Payments?

Fintech is an industry that has risen quite a lot in a short span of time due to rapid technological advancements and innovations.

It would not be wrong to call it the “era of digital payments” since in today’s time, the most convenient, quick, and secure method of making payments is via digital platforms.

Some examples of Fintech services are mobile banking, investing services, and cryptocurrency as these are all technology-induced services aimed at easing financial services for the public.

Fintech broadly categorizes existing financial institutions as well as technology companies that fall in its ambit.

There was a time when people in India were hesitant to make payments online as they were entirely dependent on the traditional method, i.e., “cash” for making transactions.

In 2016, India witnessed demonetization, which turned out to be the key factor to have nudged the economy India toward a more developed economy.

This was a wise step for India since the country needed transformation to be on par with the digital world simultaneously.

In making India digitally inclined, the government has played a major role since it has been giving many perks for online transactions in order to encourage people to make payments online.

One of the examples of these perks is incentivizing entry fees at some of the heritage or tourist spots, which has been done by keeping less charge for payments done via debit card.

Besides, technology has been advancing rapidly for making digital payment services better with time. As India is adopting new technology simultaneously, it is able to procure the benefits out of the same.

In 2016, other countries had already become digitally inclined in terms of digital payments.

According to World Payments Report, the Global Non-cash transactions per capita vs. Corruption perception Index is as such:

Source: World Payments report

The graph above shows how India, along with some other countries, had an extremely less number of digital (non-cash) transactions and the Decreasing level of corruption was not in favor.

However, India has come a long way as there have been numerous awareness programs and perks for the citizens of the country to be comfortable with adopting digital payments.

This has helped make India a “less-cash” economy to a great extent. Very recently, RBI laid 12 objectives that it seeks to achieve in the next three years for making India “Cash-lite”.

These objectives have targeted everything that the newly formed Digital India requires for deepening its roots in the country.

In India, intense penetration of mobile phones has increased digital/mobile payments, which is very much visible in the data available on Statista.

Hence, according to Statista, mobile phone users have considerably increased from 21% in 2014 to 39% in 2019.

This increase in mobile usage combined with perks by the government as well as an increased faith in digital payments and fintech have all triggered online payments further.

 Possibilities/Scope for Current as well as Future Generation

With the techno-geeks having already brought a lot of innovation in the technology and added more useful features to the functions of digital payments, India has added an industry called Fintech.

Such an industry providing all the innovative and technology-infused financial services is a boon not only for the masses and online businesses but also for the young generation that is looking for a successful career for themselves.

Be it the rural sector or the urban, in India, digital payments are gradually becoming a trend among everyone.

The scope of the Digital Payments Industry is quite extensive and it has already managed to encourage India to go toward a cash-less economy gradually from being less cash.

Although digital payments are yet to be adopted by some patches in the country, it has still risen by leaps and bounds.

In the coming future, the digital sector is going to be only more and more widespread covering everyone possible since its rate of dynamism and growth is extremely optimistic.

With the various advantages like one-click checkout and password-protected gadgets, digital payments have the provision of keeping the data secure.

Also, a payment gateway is encoded with the facility to provide a secure flow of transactions each time, which increases the security tangent successfully.

Within a short span of time, the techno-geeks have brought various elevations in the industry that have tremendously simplified the way the world operates.

The penetration of Near –Field Communication (NFC) is a technological advancement that has simplified the use of digital payments furthermore.

NFC is that set of communication protocols that allows two devices to establish communication with each other when brought together within the range of 4 cm.

Another wondrous innovation is the facility of instant bank-to-bank transfer with a single API.

Adding to the advantages, are the features that cater to the needs of students like making the payment for fees online, being able to apply for studying abroad, buying books online or accessing E-learning applications, and so on.

Further on, with various discounts available on the portals every now & then, it is extremely pocket-friendly for young India.

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Ten Payment Gateway Terms Entrepreneurs Must Know

Ever since demonetization struck the economy, digital payments have become the most preferred medium of making transactions for the masses.

Post demonetization, various incentives, advancements, and policies are surfacing now and then for making maximum people be inclined toward digital payments.

With the evolving technology, even the Fintech domain has kept pace and has inflicted the required changes in the system.

Hence, the major concern of the industry remains the safety of transactions for e-commerce platforms and their customers alike.

Here, we have incorporated everything relevant to be understood about the payment gateway:

  • SSL Protocol

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is an encryption method for online transactions.  SSL was the first widely used protocol for securing online transactions, and it eventually came to be used to secure authentication and encryption for other applications at the network transport layer.

SSL uses a combination of public-key encryptionprivate key encryption, and other cryptographic functions to secure a connection between two machines, typically a web server or mail server and a client system, communicating over the internet or another TCP/IP network.

These certificates are extremely imperative in today’s world of online business. This is an encryption method for providing online security in terms of the data that is being transferred from the customers to the website via a payment gateway.

SSL certificates give excellent security and assure the customers that their data is safe at all times.

This also brings a sense of trust amongst customers and helps the business attain loyal customers in the long run. With this kind of trustworthy reputation, your business is more likely to grow manifold shortly.

The SSL certificates work by preventing the online fraudsters to act and pretending as if they are someone else, and thus, your customers can feel safe at all times.

  • PCI DSS Compliance

For processing payments securely from a payment gateway, the online business must ensure that it is PCI DSS compliant.

PCI DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security compliance is something that tells merchants how sensitive data used in payments needs to be secured.

This requires data encryption to provide payments without using the real card data that is visible during the processing of payments.

PCI DSS compliance helps improve security, and thus, increases the trust factor of its customers significantly.

There are certain directives needed to be followed for a payment gateway or a website to be PCI-DSS compliant. Lyra Payment gateway being PCI-DSS compliant provides the benefits of the same without any hassle.

There are four levels of PCI Compliance and these are based on how much is the process of a company per year, as well as other details about the level of risk assessed by payment brands.

At a high level, the levels are the following:

  • Level 1 – Over 6 million transactions annually
  • Level 2 – Between 1 and 6 million transactions annually
  • Level 3 – Between 20,000 and 1 million transactions annually
  • Level 4 – Less than 20,000 transactions annually

“Lyra provides 24/7 customer assistance for any grievances about transactions by the clients”

  • TLS Encryption

TLS encryption is of utmost importance since it tells the users that the data transmitted between the web server and their browser is safe.

The data security on e-commerce platforms is needed to be looked into right from the moment a prospective customer or a customer lands on its website.

The TLS protocol aims at providing privacy and data integration between two or more communicating computer applications.

Without the TLS encrypted communication channel, the data sent over the internet is unencrypted and remains visible to everyone.

This implies that a person with the means and intent to intercept this data may do so and become a threat to the parties involved in making and receiving the payments.

Lyra Network’s all channels are TLS 1.2 encrypted and thus, provide maximum security to its clients and their customers alike.

For maintaining a connection between a client and a server, the following properties are a must when payments are secured with TLS protocol:

  • The connection is private and secure because of the symmetric cryptography which is used to encrypt the data transmitted upon initiating a transaction. The keys of this symmetric encryption are generated uniquely for each connection. Before the data transmission, the server and the client negotiate the details of which encryption algorithm and cryptographic keys to use. This negotiation remains highly secured and reliable, as no modification by an attacker/fraudster is possible in it without being detected.
  • The identity of the communicating parties can be authenticated using public-key cryptography. This authentication can be made optional but is generally required for at least one of the parties (typically the server).
  • The connection is reliable because each message transmitted includes a message integrity check using a message authentication code to prevent undetected loss or alteration of the data during transmission.

 

  • Acquiring/Issuing Bank

These two terms are as simple to understand as they are in their nature:

Acquiring bank- It is the merchant’s business bank account where the entire payment (amount received) from selling the goods/services is collected.

Hence, it is the account that holds the entire revenue of the merchant via the payment gateway.

Issuing bank- It is simply the bank of the customer that is used for making payments while purchasing anything online.

This account is used by the payment gateway to flow the payable amount to be deposited to the merchant’s acquiring bank.

  • Tokenization

The most serious issue with digital payments is the safety and security of the money when it flows from the customer’s account (issuer’s bank) to the business’ account (acquirer’s bank).

Tokenization is the introduction of the process of the code/token to make the flow of payments easier as well as safer.

Recently, the digital payments sector is picking pace in the country and so is the number of transactions by the public.

People are becoming aware of the technology that is invented to help them make their lives easier about making payments.

Thus, this ensures the safety of the original data while allowing a payment gateway to securely access the cardholder’s data and initiate a payment.

Since tokenization eliminates the need for storing credit card data, it is a way to improve the security level for e-commerce platforms as well as their customers.

Hence, this successfully reduces security breaches.

  • Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication or 2FA or two-step verification is additional security for ensuring secure payment to customers with every payment.

It is adopted by e-payment gateways, and assure secure transactions each time.

How does it work?

When the customer opts for net banking to make a payment for a purchase, he/she is asked to enter the user name and password.

Followed by this information, the bank sends an OTP (One Time Password) to the customer on the registered mobile number of his/.

Diving into the in-depth information includes two levels of authentication. The first level of authentication requires the user to fill in their card or net banking details which are username and password.

With this step, the bank that the card belongs to is identified. The second level provides the user with OTP or requires its PIN/CVV.

This level confirms to the bank that the payment request is initiated by the valid user. Henceforth, the payment process is started and the bank transfer takes place.

  • Fraud Prevention & Chargeback Minimisation

Having its fraud/risk prevention & chargeback minimization makes the payment gateway the most secure and reliable for e-commerce platforms.

This helps the businesses land such as customers who prefer to stick on for a long time. Since chargeback minimization also plays a huge role in making the customer feel secure about their money, it is one of the most important supplemented services of the payment gateway.

Payment gateway having this system makes sure that the e-commerce platform opting for its services can provide the best transaction-related experience to its customers.

  • Merchant/Nodal Account

A merchant account is an account, which enables the merchants to process online credit and debit payments successfully.

A payment gateway helps to deposit the funds from the customer’s credit card for sales in the merchant account.

Thereafter, the amount gets automatically and directly transferred to the merchant’s business bank account from the merchant’s account.

  • Settlement

The settlement, being a process of merchants receiving money from their customers, is an extremely important part of an online platform.

It takes into account several steps for successful, safe, convenient, and quick receipt of payment every time a customer of the merchant makes the payment for goods/services purchased.

To simplify the understanding, let us go through the segregated steps:

  • Cardholder inputs the bank account details on Lyra’s checkout page to pay for a product/service.
  • The authentication process follows post the details via OTP/3D secure and the money is debited from the cardholder’s account. This is informed to the cardholder via a confirmation notification.
  • The transaction amount flows from the card network through Lyra’s payment gateway and settles in its acquiring banking partners.
  • As soon as the payment gateway receives the amount, it is settled to the merchant’s bank account post fee deduction and this is called Payout.

The complete process takes a time of T+3* business days for domestic transactions, T being the date of capture of payment.

 

What is the role of a payment gateway and what is its success rate in India?

A payment gateway for an online business is extremely imperative since it is a channel for receiving transactions on an everyday basis.

Providing the services to receive an endless amount of payments, securely, quickly, and conveniently, a payment gateway also aids in multiple related tasks.

Be it storing the customer details for future tracking or increasing your customer satisfaction with smooth payments, it embraces it all.

As the role of a payment gateway is mainly to authenticate transactions between you and your customers, without it, an online business remains incomplete.

Payment gateway services are needed for all online credit card processing and work with the exact procedure a Point of Sale (PoS) device does when you pay for your meal at a restaurant or for a product at a brick-and-mortar retailer.

Hence, the main role of a payment gateway is to assure and secure the transactions for you on an everyday basis.

Hence, without a payment gateway, the transaction process cannot go forward and the merchant cannot receive the due amount.

Considering the importance of this channel for the online businesses, apart from the main role of authorizing the transactions, a payment gateway further performs some important functions:

  • Payment gateway stores customer details securely for future reference
  • Accepts various payment methods
  • Flows the transactions safely
  • Maintains an uninterrupted channel for sending amount from cardholder’s bank account to acquirer’s bank account
  • Enables an easy way of making payments

Payment gateways are validated to authenticate the customers (to perform their major role)!

Further, it is imperative to note that the Payment gateways are validated by the certifications like EMVCO 3D Secure and PCI DSS for being able to authenticate the customers efficiently.

Making payment gateways secure and reliable, these certifications can be explained elaborately as:

  • Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI- DSS): It is a security standard, which is mandated by Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to reduce credit card frauds. This compliance goes through validation on an annual or quarterly basis. Following the validation, a report is created based on the volume of transactions of the organization.
  • EMVCO 3D Security 2.0: In order to increase the security for those who deal in e-payments on an everyday basis, EMVCo 3D Secure 2.0 came into existence. Broadly, it is an organization made up of six major card networks and is an improvisation over several shortcomings of 3D Secure 1. With the power of better authentication and an exquisite user experience, it helps merchants deal in extremely secure transactions.

Consequently, the process of the transaction flowing from the cardholder’s account to the merchant’s account is firmly secured by the relevant compliances and a regular follow-up on the same.

Inevitably, the success of the payment gateways in performing their roles is vividly visible in the number of transactions that have gone up over the past three years in India.

Supporting the statement is the statistical data below that confirms the same:

Source: Statista.com

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What is EMVCo 3DS 2.0?

For elevated security to the end customers as well as merchants with regard to their daily transactions, EMVCo 3D Secure 2.0 is introduced. EMVCo is an organization made up of six major card networks.

This organization has released a new version of 3D Secure for the benefit of digital payment users (both merchants as well as its customers).

EMVCo 3-D Secure 2 or 3DS2 is an improvisation over various shortcomings of 3D Secure 1. The new 3-D Secure is brought up for better authentication and an exquisite user experience as a whole.

It is the certification provided to the payment gateway, which helps the merchant in authenticating its end customers.

Thus, the merchant is able to respond well to the legitimate customers’ needs via the web, mobile devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT) without any hurdles.

Implications of 3D Secure 1

In the year 2001, credit card networks implemented the first version of 3D Secure to shift the liability for chargebacks from e-commerce (online business) to the customer’s (cardholder’s) bank.

This is the added layer of protection provided by 3D Secure which is essential for online purchases, especially for the ones that may involve a huge amount of transactions.

Furthermore, it also requests additional information (which helps to build an extra layer of protection) for the online business.

Although 3D Secure 1 provided the aforementioned benefits, it had some drawbacks tagged along.

The drawbacks included the added friction to checkout flow because of an additional step required to complete the payment which led to many customers abandoning their purchase.

Furthermore, cardholders needed to create and remember their own static passwords. Because of the passwords’ inclusion to complete 3D Secure verification, it turned out to be a pesky experience for the cardholders.

This led to higher rates of cart abandonment, as cardholders would forget their passwords frequently. The user experience impact is especially pronounced in mobile apps, where applying 3D Secure may redirect customers out of the native app and onto a bank’s website that isn’t optimized for mobile devices.

These drawbacks also crept in because of the usages having had got dramatically changed over the years.

It was 15 years ago when the first version of 3D Secure was deployed, and since then the gadgets have evolved immensely.

From mobile phones to tablets and payment banking apps, the customers have got adapted to the changing environment with these new inclusions.

In today’s time, e-commerce growth and security are dependent on merchant payment applications since they have gained traction currently.

These apps have tremendously increased customer loyalty but along with that, the first version of the security authentication process had a negative impact on the user experience.

This had decreased the conversion rate of online purchases quite a lot.

 

The above chart shows the reasons (in the blocks) and problems faced (in the blue pie) by the customers/cardholders with  3D Secure 1.

Benefits of 3D Secure 2.0

  • 3D Secure 2 and strong customer authentication

The enforcement of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in September 2019 makes 3D Secure 2 all the more important.

As this new regulation will require you to apply more authentication on payments, 3D Secure 2 will offer a better user experience to minimize the impact on conversion rate.

This would lead to not only an increased conversion rate but also would integrate the deployment of these new trends/usages/devices, and also support new regulations (PSD2) regarding the potential introduction of Risk-Based Authentication (RBA).

Although 3D Secure 2 is the primary method to comply with SCA requirements for card payments, it is expected that the “frictionless” flow will not qualify as a form of Strong Customer Authentication.

This would mean that after the enforcement of SCA, the frictionless flow could only be used for payments that qualify for an exemption (whereas all payments that require SCA would need to be authenticated using the “challenge” flow).

  • Another important improvement is placing the end-user at the center of the strategy

The aim of placing the user at the center of the strategy is to reduce friction in payment workflow, ensure a smooth journey on any device, and find the right balance between security and user experience.

  • It fully integrates the merchant’s mobile applications and customer devices.

The 3D Secure 2.0 has brought consistent user experience for both app-based (native or HTML) and browser-based merchant interfaces, with the same look and feel across devices, channels, and implementations.

  • It enables the issuer’s ACS to get additional data from the context of the transaction and the merchant’s and cardholder’s risk profile.

This enabling will successfully introduce Risk-Based Authentication (RBA). For instance, the new message format will include billing and shipping address, email, shipping method, and other usual cardholder behavior information with this merchant.

Thanks to this risk information, issuers can apply two different strategies depending on the risk of each transaction.

High-risk transactions will be challenged with a state-of-the-art authentication method, while low-risk transactions will follow the “frictionless” workflow where no additional interaction with the end-user is required.

  • On top of these improvements, the specification from EMVCo also enables interested parties to create a framework for authentication for digital environments

This will extend the usage of the specification from card-based payments to other payment means and other non-payment use cases that require strong customer authentication.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contribution to Digital Villages – Advancing Bharat

The digital sector is known to evolve with the advancing technology to get better with time and make it much easier for the masses to carry out tasks on a daily basis.

This also makes the digital payments sector need to advance with time for helping people carry out transactions faster than ever before.

The core of India is its Rural sector with 83.3 crore Indians living in the rural areas.

Digital payments have provided a boost to 37.7 crores for the Indians residing in urban areas already with the quick, convenient, and safe services.

Alongside, the emphasis has also been put on the importance of the rural sector needing to find maximum incentives for the advancements.

Lyra Network, with its payment gateway services, has also ensured from time to time to contribute to strengthening the financial aspect of rural areas.

After all, rural areas comprise some of the main sectors of our economy.

Why Digital Villages Initiative? And how has Government planned it?

According to a report in Economic Times, “The number of Internet users stood at 481 million in December 2017, an increase of 11.34% over December 2016 said the report titled, “Internet in India 2017.”

Urban India with an estimated population of 455 million already has 295 million using the internet.

Rural India, with an estimated population of 918 million, has only 186 million internet users leaving out potential 732 million users in rural India.

Because rural areas lagging behind, Government has taken the initiative to make one lakh villages Digital villages over the period of the next five years with the Common Service Centres (CSCs).

It is a public-private initiative aimed at offering excellent digital services to the villagers.

According to the Ministry of electronics and information technology, the Digital Villages initiative will initially cost over Rs420 crore ($62 million) and, along with basic internet access, will provide avenues for interactive telemedicine and educational sessions.

“The project is a public-private partnership and will be driven through the common service centers (CSCs)“.

Contribution of Lyra

Lyra’s contribution to Digital Villages, considering the e-payments domain, has been quite expansive. LYRA’s unique last-mile connectivity solution is being used by many BCs (business correspondents) to provide banking services using mobile handheld devices in the villages or rural sector at a pan-India level. A total of 10 million connections are being processed per day.

Lyra’s last-mile connectivity in Rural India has enabled the NAC-GPRS solution.

With this solution, Lyra is solving the problem of interrupted transactions in rural India because of network problems in remote areas.

This solution has helped banks conduct transactions in such areas successfully.

Conclusively, this has led to the financial inclusion of the remote sector of the country as well, and the residents have actively become a part of the formal financial system.

NAC (Network Access control) is a server that provided seamless data to the bank. NAC consists of many channels which enable communication between a payment gateway and a bank.

NAC, being a highly secure and powerful server, is able to communicate and send information of the cardholder to the merchants’ banks without any glitches.

Lyra is a payment processor for transactions between merchant POS to the client host. Lyra Network owns an exclusive EFT/POS solution using a single architecture called Lyra

NAC. In short, EFT/POS transaction gateway is called Lyra NAC.

This is able to receive and transfer any transaction flow securely from any kind of POS terminal and connects it to any type of network (PSTN/GPRS/ADSL) with any existing transaction protocol.

The exclusive EFT/POS transaction gateway is connected to the free Lyra Network e-portal and offers real-time transaction status from EFT/POS terminals in retail stores to the client hosts.

What all Lyra’s GPRS SIM solution provides:

  • Subscription packages to manage costs
  • Free web portal to manage SIM cards
  • Dedicated LSS software for EFT servers
  • High-speed truncation process
  • Real-time transaction tracking system
  • Quick setup of POS terminals via web-portal

What all Lyra’s IP solution provides:

  • Dual Authentication platform
  • PCI DSS compliant
  • Robust SSL/TLS 1.2 encrypted communication channel
  • Full autonomy of authentication platforms
  • Quick installation
  • Real-time online transaction and status monitoring
  • In addition to standardized TLE encryption
  • Real-time status monitoring of network connectivity

Besides, Lyra is working on the Department of Posts Rural – ICT project where the Branch postman is deployed with a mobile handheld device.

This postman delivers on-the-go services at the village level.

As there is a network connectivity problem in the remote locations, there is a provision of micro ATMs consisting of features that make withdrawals easier, quicker, and convenient for the residents.

Micro ATMs are handheld devices, which have most of the capabilities of a regular ATM, except that these are manned units, by a merchant, cashier, or field staff.

In remote locations, since the infrastructure needs to be ramped up, the availability of networks is not enough of help.

Thus, wherever the network availability is feasible, Lyra is providing the rural areas with the secured technology for successful payment transactions.

Lyra’s last-mile connectivity solution enables the handheld devices to be connected according to real-time.

This solution is successfully working in the rural areas and is helping the government to achieve the goal of making “each village a digital village”.

Lyra is ensuring the best services constantly in the following manner:

  • With access to available broadband, numerous POS devices with internet connectivity are getting added to the economy. It has helped retailers access wireless POS machines with Lyra’s advanced services. With wireless POS machines, these retailers in remote areas are able to stay updated with timely advancements and positively access the same.
  • Lyra is working constantly to enhance the security of transactions as, with advancements in technology, digital payments also become prone to fraudulent activities. For the same reason, Lyra is also using the dual authentication solution for keeping sensitive information protected.
  • Lyra’s unique POS is also providing secure channel encryption between POS and banks with NAC connectivity. This channel is secure, quick, and updated.

According to a report, rural Internet penetration had grown from 18% in December 2016 to 20.26% in December 2017.

This implies that Bharat is advancing every day gradually and is on the way to becoming Digital Bharat as a whole nation.

 

The pie chart above shows a positive shift in the percentage of internet users in rural areas in just one year.

With the steps and measures being taken to make each village a digital village, India is expected to grow manifold in the near future with access to the latest technology from time to time.

Chargeback

Chargeback is the amount that may be debited from the merchant’s account in case of a genuine complaint from the customer, for an instance, an actual duplicate billing.

Following this, a customer may raise a dispute against the businessperson for the same.

Nevertheless, online businesses can safeguard themselves from the financial loss from the cases, which are not genuine and/or repetitive faulty transactions.

Despite many merchants considering chargeback as a part and parcel of their business, the fact is that it can actually be avoided with some preventive measures.

With an objective to fairly balance the provision of justice, RBI has a set procedure for the payment gateways to follow before debiting the amount (if actually, it has to be) on an end customer’s request

RBI’s ombudsman scheme rules out that the customer requires to file a complaint with the service providing company/digital payments company itself and wait for 30 days for the same to respond with an action.

In case the service provider does not address the issue of the complainant positively, with a solution, one can approach the ombudsman meant for digital payments within the jurisdiction where the service provider’s office is located.

This gives the merchant enough time to rule out the actual reason behind the chargeback application and take action based on the same.

Know more about Chargebacks

A merchant must know that there are four separate “reason codes” and the customer needs to state their credit card issuer one of them while requesting a chargeback.

Hence, without one of these reasons stated to the credit card issuer, the customer cannot get the processing of chargeback initiated:

  1. Clerical chargebacks – These chargebacks occur when a customer raises issue such as duplicate billing, an incorrect amount billed, or when a promised refund did not get issued.
  2. Technical chargebacks – Such a chargeback is raised by the customer for technical reasons such as expired card authorization, non-sufficient funds, or bank processing errors.
  3. Quality-related chargebacks – Such chargebacks are issued when customers claim to have never received the item(s) or received them either in a defective condition or later than promised to them.
  4. Fraud-related chargebacks – These chargebacks are inflicted when the customer gets charged without his/her knowledge and shows suspicion of identity theft and/or when it is charged without their consent.
  5. Chargeback fraud – This is also popularly known as friendly fraud. It occurs when a customer makes an online shopping purchase with their own credit card and following the receipt of the good, requests a chargeback. In case it gets approved, the customer receives the entire amount as a refund.

After going through the “reason codes”, further you can take a look at “How to avoid credit card chargeback as a merchant?”

Below are the apt ways to avoid the same and protect your online business from frequent potential losses along with the reputation you have worked hard for-

By following processor protocol

The credit card processor may need to give permission to process the transactions made over the phone or on the website of the merchant (online transactions).

For the approval of the same, the merchant may have to get additional information such as the customer’s IP address, digital signature, or social media profiles.

Furthermore, some processors also require additional identity confirmation through services like Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, which requires customers to authorize credit or debit card payments online. Additionally, proof of delivery after the shipping of items may be required.

By using a clear payment descriptor

Unclear payment descriptors are one of the main reasons for the majority of disputes in a firm. The payment descriptor is the merchant name as well as other identifying details that appear on the customer’s credit card statement when they make a purchase from the merchant.

So if the merchant lists a different name than what the customer may recognize it may lead to the customer not being able to recall the purchase later.

For example, the name of the parent company instead of your store’s specific name can make the customer go slightly lost. Hence, the descriptor must reflect what the consumer can easily recognize.

By getting it in Writing

One of the most important things for a merchant to keep her/his business safeguarded is to get customers to sign a contract that mentions specific services that the company will provide.

This aids the merchant by avoiding any misconceptions thereafter. There can be multiple options for returning the signed contract.

These options include fax, email, electronic signatures online, fingerprint recognition via a smartphone application, and so on.

By sorting Customer Issues promptly

There is an advantage with the chargeback notification reaching the merchant since when a customer raises a charge, it approaches the merchant in the first place.

This can be taken optimistically since it brings an opportunity to address chargebacks instantly with the customer as and when they appear.

Hence, if a customer expresses dissatisfaction, she/he can get in touch with the person and in case it gets resolved there, it need not be taken at a higher level.

By gaining the knowledge about fraud

Knowledge about the signs of a potential fraud case can drastically help a merchant avoid fraud by raising a warning of a possible threat ahead.

This can be attained with the chargeback protocol that helps the merchant detect signs of possible fraud.

In case of suspicious details, like the credit card security code is incorrect or a discrepancy between the billing and shipping addresses, the merchant can inquire to ensure the legitimacy of the customer.

This way the merchant can either confirm or deny the sales depending on the status of the customer’s genuineness.

It can be done in various ways, for an instance, by getting the information about the customer on the social platforms, making a call to the customer who ordered for the said service(s)/product(s), etc.

By training the employees

Training the employees is one of the best ways to avoid a chargeback. This can be done for both kinds of transactions where the cardholder presents the card for payment and also for the website transactions.

By teaching the employees about fraud and chargeback prevention techniques, the aim of avoiding chargebacks can be achieved.

The transactions, for example, can be teaching fraud and chargeback prevention techniques for looking for suspicious transactions, verifying signatures in card-present transactions, and obtaining signatures on contracts and sales orders when appropriate.

By maintaining good records

Maintaining records of customers’ credit card transaction details like dates of transactions, amounts, and authorization information help to fight a chargeback in case of.

The records help merchants in case of an unfair practice where a customer may try to take advantage of the chargeback system or may have forgotten the purchase.

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Lyra India Journey

Beginning of Lyra’s Journey:

Lyra Network has been securing data flow between merchants and banks successfully ever since the year 2007 in India.

Ever since then, Lyra has been bringing an innovative spirit and new technologies to the Indian market. The passion and determination to succeed have helped Lyra overcome all the obstacles that they encountered in the beginning and kept pacing up.

Gradually, with all the enthusiasm, the company progressed towards flamboyant success. Nevertheless, several obstacles kept rolling but Lyra continued to grow past each of them.

From shared corner office space to Multiple dedicated offices:

Lyra scooted off on its journey toward success and from being situated in a shared corner office, it has grown into multiple dedicated offices now.

Today, it is the trusted partner for all types of digital payments and is growing constantly at a steady pace.

The products – Lyra Connect and Lyra Collect have been recognized as the big wheels in the payment processing industry for banks and brands.

The innovative payment gateway provides an “all-in-one solution” for customers. Lyra has been engaging successfully with major banks, merchants, and government projects.

Also having tie-ups with major telco partners across the country, the Lyra Payment gateway has been established successfully and it caters to multiple verticals on a pan-India basis.

This way Lyra kept pacing up to grab every goal with time. This has helped Lyra reach one huge goal of making maximum loyal clients throughout and a wonderful reputation in the industry.

Lyra’s strength has been its NAC solution, which is the trusted channel through which the transactions flow through securely whenever a customer of a business partner makes payments via a POS machine.

Moreover, Lyra has its high-end infrastructure in Bangalore and Mumbai offices.

Today, Lyra Network is proud to be offering technology services in the connectivity space and the entire gamut of sectors namely banks, financial institutions, government, online businesses, startups, and transport.

Additionally, services Lyra offers high security, stability, and robustness for helping the customers carry out smooth transactions.

Having been tested and proven in advanced dynamic markets like Europe, Lyra has secured the repute of being the best in the industry.

In the same sectors, Lyra has replicated the technology for the Indian market making them apt with the local impression.

Lyra has specialized in the brick and mortar service over a period and is supportive of Omni-channel businesses.

Having a presence in the Indian market for a decade, Lyra plans to expand the reach of its high-quality services across the nation.

Currently working with major banks, Lyra is providing solutions with Lyra IP POS, Lyra SIM solutions, Lyra Payment Gateway, Merchant Plug-In (MPI) & 3-D secure, White Label Payment Gateway Solution, E-POS, and Lyra Payment SWITCH.

Lyra has its offices with high-end infrastructure present in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Having a critical role to play in the payments technology domain, Lyra is working rapidly to make its reach even vaster.

Lyra Network India was initiated with the one-man army and has gradually developed into a team of handpicked professionals and each Individual in the team has been selected after a careful evaluation followed by the set procedure.

The company’s forte has been excellence in technology and that is what they pertain to at every step, as well as in every area.

Lyra has over 10 billion successful payments to date and over 2.5 million POS terminals and sees the Indian market strategically with huge potential.

In 2018, Lyra was the title sponsor of Digital Money participation 2.0, the largest annual gathering of fintech and digital payment players in India, and was also recognized and awarded by a leading bank as one of the fast-growing businesses in the region.

Mr. Rajesh Desai’s (CEO, Lyra India) main motto in life has been to become better than yesterday and take care of every day’s hurdles gracefully. Hence, initial struggles, as well as the ones that arose along with the company’s growth only increased his tenacity to climb above each one of them.

 

Lyra’s Establishment:

Lyra continued to maintain pace with the changing time under the able supervision of its authorities and continued investing in the new advancements/technology with time.

Going further, Lyra has also kept pace with the expectations of the customers throughout, since with the evolving technology customers’ expectations are also evolving simultaneously.

Remaining at par with the expectations of the clients/customers is the company’s one the highest concern.

Not only this, Lyra makes sure that the growing costs with the growth of the company are utilized to the maximum.

It manages to utilize the costs incurring every now and then and has every time progressed to reach the full potential of the investment.

The stack of challenges does not end here since with every advancement there is something new that adds to the pile anytime.

Its huge customer base comprises of banks, financial institutions, airlines, insurance companies, the government sector, microfinance institutions, and others.

The services are being used by more than 25 banks in the country and the company is also working with some of the large e-commerce merchants to help them grow successfully.

 

Excellence provided by Lyra (Its Achievements):

Excellence in providing quality services has been the key to Lyra Network India’s success. Its strength lies in various factors and one of them is the kind of robustness the company renders in the area of making payments.

This was highly evident during the ‘demonetization’ phase when a sudden need for online transactions spread across and made it highly challenging for the industry.

During this phase, a spur in the volumes of transactions led to the crashing of various platforms overnight.

However, despite high demands for online transactions, Lyra’s system kept providing continuous support to the public without fail, all thanks to its technological edge.

The ‘Digital India’ initiative gave a further boost to cashless transactions and as a result, we have witnessed a shift from the traditional way of making payments to technology-induced payment platforms.

But this shift has also brought with it problems like cybersecurity breaches and data privacy issues.

Lyra India with its innovative payment management tools and a secure structure to make payment has been able to address both the concerns efficiently.

Lyra Network manages the flow of over 3 million POS terminals and 55,000 online shops and is currently spreading its reach in countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and so on.

It also caters to the payment-related requirements of the organizations. As mentioned already, their platform is well-equipped to ensure security in payment processing across a plethora of payment modes including credit and debit cards, net banking, and e-wallets.

Lyra network also employs regular internal and external audits and has the SSL certificate, PCI DSS Audit, and Visa certificate, which ensures a secure connection and encryption of the cardholder’s credit card information.

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RBI has launched the Ombudsman scheme for easing the issues of the masses who indulge in digital payments on a regular basis.

These include all from online businesses to the customers (public) who prefer shopping online frequently.

Now, it has become easy to file complaints against digital payment companies with regard to transactions.

Digital payment companies provide the services to the merchants via banks. Be it prepaid payments instruments, UPI, BHIM-UPI, e-wallets, BBPS, and so on, one can now get their issues resolved quicker than before.

With the ombudsman offices located in 21 areas across 19 cities, the issues can be resolved with the digital payments company in much lesser time.

Although the scheme maintains that one needs to first file the complaint with the service-providing company and wait for 30 days for the same to respond.

The types of complaints include:

• unauthorized electronic funds transfer
• inability to transfer funds to your bank account
• failure to load funds into the wallet within a reasonable period of time
• failure to make a fund transfer of payment
• failure to refund the amount back to you in case of a failed transactions
• inability to implement stop payment transactions
• complaints related to UPI
• complaints related to Bharat Bill Payment System
• complaints related to Bharat QR Code
• complaints related to UPI QR Code
• Non-adherence to any other instruction of the Reserve Bank on Mobile / Electronic fund transfer

But, this does not imply that the responsibility of the payment service provider ends here.

The payment service provider needs to ensure that it tries to resolve the grievances/complaints of the customers from its own end.

RBI notification has specified it clearly for the service providers to take full responsibility for resolving customer disputes arising out of transactions enabled on third-party platforms.

How to File a Complaint?

Step 1:
The first and foremost step is to file a complaint with the service providing company/digital payments company itself and wait for 30 days for the same to respond with an action.

In case the service provider does not address the issue of the complainant positively, with a solution, one can approach the ombudsman meant for digital payments within the jurisdiction where the service provider’s office is located.

In case of a centralized operation provided by the company, the billing address will itself decide the relevant ombudsman for the complainant.

One can file the complaint online without needing to visit the office.

One can file the complaint online to the ombudsman’s official email address available on RBI’s official notification (dated 31 January 2019) in regard to interlinks.
Step 2:
When you do not receive a satisfactory response from the digital payments company, you need to approach the Ombudsman, within a year of the rejection of the complaint or within 13 months of filing the complaint.

Only if the case is an exceptional one, the ombudsman office will accept a delay.

Your complaint will not be entertained if already filed with another forum, or if your grievance does not fall under eligible grounds of complaints.

Step 3:
If you are not satisfied with the ombudsman’s reply as well, you can write to the appellate authority, that is, the office of the deputy governor that is in charge of RBI’s department for overseeing the ombudsman.

Your next resort in case all the above fails is the consumer forum or the court.

Compensation Expected:

The compensation one can expect is Rs 1 lakh in lieu of loss of customer’s time, expenses incurred, and mental agony.

Additionally, the maximum compensation that the digital payments ombudsman can award is Rs 20 lakh.

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Labeling Ombudsman as the Talisman for digital payment users is justifiable in a way that it is a rescue for those end users that are not able to get their issues resolved from their respective service providers.

Be it a failure to effect online payment or fund transfer, a failure to refund the money in case of a failed transaction, or any similar payment-related grievance, now there is an Ombudsman to take things into its control and resolve it all.

Even the complaints about Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), Bharat QR code and UPI QR Code are to be also looked into by Ombudsman for Digital transactions.

The Need for Ombudsman

In the recent past, a number of complaints relating to digital transactions kept rising with RBI and there were numerous such queries that gathered as digital transactions grew over a period. According to RBI, the number of complaints related to digital transactions in terms of banking reached as high as 28%, as of June 2018, of the total number of grievances with RBI. The central bank has recorded complaints relating to the digital mode of financial transactions as only 19% during the financial year ended March 2017.

Mainly, a separate Ombudsman was required to help the customers/clients making digital transactions get speedy justice. Being one of the few countries having ombudsmen for digital transactions, India aims to build a stronger grip over digital transactions and make its economy cashless. To provide citizens of the country with the maximum benefits, the ombudsman is a positive addition to the ecosystem.

 

According to the scheme, the digital payments’ domain covered under the same is required to:

  1. Display prominently in all the offices and branches the internal customer grievance/redressal framework, along with the contact details of the designated nodal officer to look into the customer complaints/grievances.

 

  1. Ensure the purpose of the scheme and the contact details of the Ombudsman for Digital Transactions to whom the complaints can be made by the aggrieved party clearly visible. This is to be done so that the person visiting the office of the branch gets adequate information about the scheme.

 

  1. Ensure that a copy of the scheme is available with the designated officer of the entity covered under the same for perusal. It is also needed to place a copy of the scheme on their websites/ mobile applications and update the same on a regular basis.

 

  1. Appoint nodal officers at their regional/zonal offices and inform the respective office of the Ombudsman for Digital Transactions under whose jurisdiction the regional/zonal office falls.

Speculations/Expectations with Ombudsman

With the Digital India initiative followed by various incentives for pushing digital payments forward, there was an urgent need for addressing several problems faced by the users of digital payments.

Soon after the ombudsman scheme was launched, various speculations with regard to the digital payments’ further success are being surfaced.

This is possible with the grievances/redressals of the clients taken seriously, and getting solved much faster than before.

  • Expected to boost customer confidence

Ombudsman is expected to boost customer confidence by addressing the customer’s grievances/redressal on an immediate basis. The ombudsman scheme is launched to look through customers’ those problems which used to be neglected or be delayed in getting relevant responses earlier.

  • Expected to help India become more digitally inclined

Ombudsman is expected to help India become even more digitally inclined since it is an extremely great help to those who deal in digital payments on a daily basis.

Be it the customers or the businesses (payer or payee), the need of the hour was to strengthen both with a body that could bring constructive solutions to their issues.

  • May transform the economy to being cash-less from less-cash

Over a period, the economy is expected to grow from being less cash to a cash-less one with the scheme that is launched to look into the matters of digital payments’ users affirmatively.

It is expected that the success of this scheme will not only help digital payment users from several glitches but also will move the economy forward.

The entire ecosystem, with this scheme, is speculated to become more and more in favor of cash-less transactions (digital transactions) in the economy, which is the end aim of the government.

  • Help entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs

The ombudsman scheme is being looked upon as an impactful movie that can positively help entrepreneurs scale their businesses up.

Thus, this move is also expected to help the “Make in India” movement by pulling down digital payments-related issues on an everyday basis.

This can be made possible with the provisioning of quick solutions to the businesses functioning with the online platforms as the medium of receiving money.

In addition, it is a big help to those women entrepreneurs who are bounded by social and familial obligations and find digital payments platforms as the most suited for receiving payments.

It is expected to contribute to their success since one of the aspects of their success depends on the smooth flow of payments.

With the ombudsman scheme, women entrepreneurs are expected to not be left stuck since their issues with payments will be positively looked into and, are expected to be settled on an immediate basis.

  • Apparently, the procedure of making and receiving payments is expected to become even easier with an ombudsman to settle down the issues associated with it.

With the wave of Digital India having made making and receiving payments easy for the masses, certain issues also emerged simultaneously over a period.

These issues comprised of day-to-day transactions’ related troubles that would take a lot of time to be sorted and settled.

Now with the ombudsman scheme being active, these day-to-day troubles are expected to be settled rapidly.

Hence, dealing with payments on an everyday basis is expected to get easier with the smooth functioning of digital transactions.

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Indian ‘Online businesses’ with the Right Attitude to Succeed

India celebrated its 70th Republic day on 26th January 2019 and we are proud to have witnessed it having progressed this much by absorbing advancements of the modern world.

As India has come a long way since its independence, the world has seen it progress rapidly over a period.

The contributors to this success are all parts of the society that have proved to be significant for not only their own growth but also the growth of the country alike.

With their contribution to the progressive state of the country, the online businesses in India that achieved tremendous success in a short span of time are:

  • Flipkart- Run by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Flipkart is an online shopping destination, valued at around USD 11 billion.

 

  • InMobi- The eight-year-old company was founded by Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta, and Naveen Tewari. InMobi offers advertising services based on the profiles and behavior of the users and is valued at $2.5 billion.

 

  • Snapdeal- It started as a deals site and is now an eCommerce marketplace, valued at $2 billion. Co-founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, the company has secured a total funding of $1.1.

 

  • Olacabs- Mumbai-based online cab booking service Olacabs was founded by Ankit Bhati and Bhavish Aggarwal, currently valued at $1 billion.

 

  • Zomato- It was founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It is an online and mobile restaurant search and discovery service providing information for 300,000 restaurants across 19 countries and is valued at around $ 660 million.

 

  • ShopClues- It is an Indian marketplace that connects buyers and sellers online and currently, the company is valued at $500 million.

 

The list above comprises just a few of the companies that have gained recognition over a period in India with nothing more than taking the right steps in the right direction.

The companies aforementioned are the ones that are some of the most valued Indian Online businesses. As one treads the path of success towards one’s goals, one needs to make sure of certain things that they did differently.

Now coming to “what successful entrepreneurs or Online businesses do differently?”

Information about Indian companies that have made it to the top and have made their mark in the country is incomplete without understanding what they did differently for reaching this level of success.

There are certain things that successful businesses follow for making a niche in the industry and consequently, pave their own path toward success and some of them are as follows:

  • They started the company with an innate passion and obsession with the work they were going to start with.

 

  • Maintained a dedicated and persistent work environment with only progressive strategies every day and every moment.

 

  • Hired only those people who were passionate about their role and job-related responsibilities that they were being employed for.

 

  • Incorporated strategies for making sales and followed them consistently. Moreover, new strategies were made only based on past success in selling.

 

  • They knew their core competencies and focussed on being great at them.

 

  • They set the realistic standard for reaching their goals and not the ones that may be too absurd to start with. Hence, accomplishing every step with every short-term goal leads to achieving long-term goals in the near future.

 

  • Embrace criticism for constructive improvisations. According to iamwire.com, Leaders who were in the lower 10% of people who asked for feedback were only ranked as 17% effective by their peers and employees. Meanwhile, leaders who were in the top 10% of people who asked for feedback received an average effectiveness rating of 83%.

 

  • Took learnings to practical efforts. After learning certain tactics for taking business successfully ahead to the next step, these successful leaders also make efforts to apply their learned techniques for making it a successful affair. This implies that “mere/only” learning is only going to sit with the person and not going to nudge success.

 

  • They indulge in improvisation on an everyday basis to bring value to their work constantly. Furthermore, along with the evolving trends in the industry, a businessperson must mold itself and camouflage with the ongoing methods/process of functioning.

As it is said, there is no shortcut to success and it only comes with one’s persistency, hard work, and an innate passion for the work.

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