Nitish Asthana, General Manager, Fiserv
The global payments industry is undergoing rapid transformation as ever-increasing consumer expectations and the emergence of new FinTech solutions are changing the way payments are channelled and received. Most developed and developing countries are embracing digital payments that are in step with the way people live and work today. In this industry in the midst of transformation, Fiserv is uniquely positioned to connect businesses and consumers to the payments ecosystem.
Fiserv Inc. completed a transformative combination with First Data in 2019, advancing its leadership in payments and commerce-enabling technology to serve financial institutions, businesses, merchants and consumers. In 2020, Fiserv was recognized among FORTUNE World’s Most Admired Companies® for a seventh consecutive year.
The company has a global presence across more than 100 countries, including India and 15 Asia Pacific markets. In Asia Pacific, the company helps clients achieve best-in-class results through a commitment to innovation and excellence in areas including account processing and digital banking solutions; card issuer processing; payments; e-commerce; merchant acquiring and processing.
A Market Leader in India
Nitish Asthana, General Manager of Fiserv in India and Sri Lanka, shares, “Our journey in India began in 2008, with our first card issuing client in the country, followed by the inception of our joint venture with ICICI Bank in 2009. This joint venture, ICICI Merchant Services, has become a leading merchant acquirer and one of the most successful examples of the partnership between banks and payment providers in India.”
During the past 12 years, the Fiserv business in India has grown exponentially, with thousands of associates and representatives, including coverage in South Asia and Sri Lanka. The company has become a market leader in card issuance and merchant acquiring.
For the last decade, ICICI Merchant Services has been at the forefront of the payment space in India, making electronic payment acceptance fast, easy, and secure for large enterprise merchants to smaller retail stores. With a footprint across 700 cities and towns and a strong market presence in the top 10 metro cities along with tier I, tier II and tier III cities, Fiserv serves small merchants and enterprise clients, enabling them to accept payments in-store, online and on-the-go through cutting edge terminal technology, mobile payment, and e-commerce solutions.
India is also home to the Fiserv Global Development Centre, focusing on delivering world-class engineering and innovation, providing complex business solutions to clients globally, and delivering many firsts and award-winning solutions in the country. Asthana states, “We are the first acquirer to introduce mobile payments and digital self-service channels, and as part of the green initiatives to reduce paper usage, we are the first to offer our award-winning digital boarding for merchants and digital charge-slips.”
Fueling Digital Transformation from Local Kiranas to India’s Largest Financial Institutions
Understanding the needs of merchants and small kiranas (convenience stores) to accept electronic payments simply and cost-effectively, Fiserv addressed these demands and launched a next-generation app that can run on the merchant’s mobile devices or be paired with a low-cost payment device, serving as a mobile POS terminal to accept traditional card payments, as well as new alternative payments like UPI and Bharat QR.
Determined to help merchants start businesses quickly, Fiserv also introduced an award-winning digital onboarding solution in 2018. Procedures that were historically paper-driven are now digitized. The solution is coupled with advanced data analysis tools, which dramatically improves the merchant boarding time. The low-cost acceptance infrastructure and streamlined boarding process is a major incentive to small merchants who are eager to start accepting electronic payments.
The solutions offered by Fiserv go beyond servicing merchants and large businesses. The company helps financial institutions simplify their payment infrastructure while building a resilient foundation for effective digital transformation. Fiserv is one of the global processors with onshore card processing capabilities in India, and the company’s market-leading card issuing platform, VisionPLUS®, supports credit/debit cards and loan issuer processing covering the end-to-end business cycle from operations to customer service.
In addition, the Enterprise Payment Platform from Fiserv simplifies the entire non-cards payment infrastructure, serving as an integrated, centralized platform for multiple payment types and clearing schemes. The platform helps financial institutions of all sizes simplify their payments infrastructure and build a resilient foundation for effective digital transformation.
For larger banks and those that require customized solutions, Fiserv offers robust core banking and digital banking solutions to serve the account processing needs of these sophisticated institutions. The digital platform facilitates customer interactions at any touchpoint and offers a single configurable platform to support multiple businesses across Retail, Private and Business Banking.
Future Aspirations
“At Fiserv, we aspire to move money and information in a way that moves the world. In India, Fiserv has been working relentlessly behind the scenes for the last 12 years to do just that, and will continue to drive the digitization agenda in the country,” asserts Asthana.
Going forward, Fiserv aims at innovating and servicing the evolving needs of its clients, and will work closely with partners and alliances to broaden coverage in the market and make payment infrastructure affordable, delivering relevant solutions to each client.
The team at the Global Development Centre has been focusing on a series of new and existing technologies, including next-generation merchant solutions, digital enablement, advanced risk management, and data-focused solutions to keep Fiserv at the forefront of evolving client expectations and innovative payment methods.
Asthana concludes, “Indian businesses and consumers welcome innovation, with the adoption of alternative payment methods and the emergence of social commerce – at Fiserv, we must continue to cultivate an innovative and collaborative culture, deliver excellence in everything we do and work towards becoming the most respected company in the country.”