In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 15th January 2017 MediaNama would like to thank its sponsors: Indian Express, Bruce Clay and E2E for their support. Petrol Pumps vs Banks highlights the “who pays” problem for digital payments Earlier today: There appears to have been a face-off between banks and petrol pumps over the weekend, and it appears that the banks have blinked. Yesterday, as reported in The Hindu, All India Petroleum Dealers Association had said that they would stop card payments after banks said they would impose up to 1% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). MDR is the fee that Banks charge merchants for enabling digital transactions. On Sunday, Banks apparently deferred this 1% MDR for a few days, following which the Petrol pumps have also agreed to accept cards till January 13th 2016, according to the Times of India. This probably gives time for negotiation, but it doesn’t mean that the issue has been resolved. Read it here Freecharge customers’ balance moved away from YES Bank Snapdeal-owned digital payments company Freecharge has moved customers’ balances from a wallet powered by YES Bank to one owned by Freecharge Payment Technologies Private limited, the company informed customers via an email. It had launched its wallet operations in a partnership with YES Bank back in September 2015 when it did not have a licence of its own. This is a pretty common practice where a payments company partners with a commercial bank to get the…
