US lawmakers cite India’s UPI model in payments reform debate
Washington, June 25: US lawmakers debating the future of the country’s payment system pointed to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as an example of how modern public payment infrastructure can drive private-sector innovation, as fintech firms urged Congress to overhaul regulations governing access to America’s payment network.
The comparisons with India came during a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions on Wednesday (local time), where lawmakers examined whether the United States should modernise its regulatory framework to give qualified non-bank payment companies direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment infrastructure instead of relying on traditional banking intermediaries.
Eileen O’Mara, Vice Chair at Stripe, told lawmakers that countries that have opened access to payment infrastructure have seen significant innovation, citing both Brazil and India.
“The UK did it in 2017, the EU in 24, and the results are real,” she said, before adding: “We saw the very same thing happen with UPI in India on an even larger scale.”
She argued that although the United States has the FedNow instant payment system, “it lacks a product layer on top — exactly what payment companies like Stripe would build, with the direct access that could drive significant adoption.”
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib highlighted India’s digital payments success. Referring to UPI, she noted that it is operated by the National Payments Corporation of India and processes billions of transactions each month. She contrasted that with the US system, saying the achievements of India and Brazil demonstrated that “large-scale payment systems offering free instant transactions” are already a reality for millions of users.
O’Mara said the existing framework was designed around whether a company is “a bank or you’re not a bank”, while payment firms operate under a different business model.
Tara Flynn of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition also urged lawmakers to ensure that any non-bank receiving access to the banking and payments system should be subject to strong consumer protections, community investment obligations and rigorous regulatory supervision. (IANS)
Failed robbery on small Caribbean island of Tobago spawns memes, Batman references
PORT OF SPAIN, June 25: Police in Trinidad and Tobago said Wednesday that they are searching for a group of robbers caught on camera who used a backhoe to try and steal a cash machine but bungled the movie-style heist so badly they ended up as memes. Security camera footage shows at least four suspects fumbling around the crime scene. One of them bore a striking resemblance to Batman, wearing black clothing, a black ski mask and what looked like a black poncho that blew in the wind like the superhero’s cape. That person is seen tripping over debris and falling on the floor while attempting to direct the backhoe.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service said the suspects’ “efforts to remove the vault proved futile, after the arm of the backhoe sustained damage” during the incident early Wednesday.
The suspects were able to move the cash machine to the sidewalk with the backhoe, which police said they stole from a nearby beach. But after the backhoe’s arm stopped working — and their combined efforts to lift the cash machine onto a small truck also failed — the suspects gave up and sped off in what police said was a stolen vehicle. The detached cash machine remained in the open, with authorities later responding to the scene in Tobago, the smaller of the twin-island nation. Based on the security video timestamp, the failed attempt lasted over 10 minutes all while a state of emergency remains in effect.
The video of the attempted robbery quickly went viral. Memes popped up on social media, callers on morning radio talk shows made fun of the failed robbers and a local newspaper headlined its story, “Batman’ and robbing.” (AP)
