NEW DELHI : Google Pay is currently not focusing on cross-border payments and remittances and is instead putting significant emphasis on making domestic digital payments faster, simpler and safer, Kunal Rana, Director, Merchant Services, Google Pay, said on Friday.

“Google Pay, I would say right now, we are not focussing on cross-border payments and remittances. In the domestic market, we are focussing on it in a big way,” Rana told ANI on the sidelines of the 3rd edition of FinInvest.

Rana said transaction success rates remain a key priority for Google Pay as it seeks to improve the overall domestic payment experience.

“If I look at the transaction success rates, we would be probably the highest in the industry. It remains a focus for us. So, transactions happening fast, and in a very simple, easy way, and safely, is a big priority,” he said.

He also highlighted measures aimed at making digital payments safer, including alerts for users when Google Pay detects potentially suspicious activity involving the person to whom money is being sent.

“When you make transactions, if we suspect that something suspicious is going on, on the person you are sending the money to, we always give you an alert, in the local regional language of that person. So, that’s how we are making payments faster and safer,” Rana said.

On cybersecurity, Rana said fraud prevention remains a critical priority for fintech companies, regulators and industry bodies, stressing that even a very small level of fraud could damage trust in digital payments.

“Money is something you can’t even have a 0.0001 per cent of fraud, risk and scam. Because that erodes the trust, the user will never use that payment method again,” he said.

Rana said combating fraud is a continuous challenge as new methods emerge even after existing risks are addressed.

“It’s not an easy problem to solve because when you solve something on the risk and fraud side, there are some new innovative methods that come up. So, it’s always a catch-up game,” he said.

According to Rana, Google Pay has over the last few years stopped scams and frauds worth more than Rs 13,000 crore, while he qualified the figure by saying, “if I remember the number correctly.”

Rana also spoke about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), saying small merchants could use AI to access capabilities traditionally available to larger businesses.

“If you’re a big company, you can do a lot of things with AI that small merchants can’t do, but the MSME can make itself as powerful as a big company with AI,” he said.

He said AI could help merchants use customer feedback to make practical business decisions, including what products to stock and how to run their shops.

Rana also highlighted developments in enabling MSMEs with merchant credit, while noting that there is still significant scope for further progress.

On the current zero-MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) regime for UPI, Rana said Google Pay would follow decisions taken by the government, lawmakers and relevant industry bodies.

“We are operating in the current regime as well, of the zero MDR. We’ll see how the government decides. It’s up to the lawmakers, and the relevant industry bodies like NPCI to decide,” he said.

Rana said the digital payments infrastructure built by banks and fintech companies has added significant value to India and helped establish the country as a leading fintech technology provider, with other countries also drawing inspiration from India’s digital payments ecosystem. (ANI)