a payments business solution providerwith the introduction of government payment apps and systems such as upi bhim and bharat qr and banks offering mobile banking innovations industry observers say they do not see an overwhelming need for standalone wallets there is not much differentiation in terms of ease of transaction or convenience offered by these wallets compared to banks says sharma he points to the example of kotak mahindra banks downloadable bank account 811 it only requires aadhaar for verification and enables instant opening of accounts wallets did ease payment problems earlier but banks have now come a long way and offer a frictionless experience with more benefits says sharmaindustry experts point out that banks have a readily available customer base for their mobile apps while wallets are still in acquisition mode banks offer much more in terms of a full range of financial services including credit cards debit cards personal loans vehicle loans fixed deposits insurance and mfs wallets only offer a solution for making paymentsindustry veteran and founder of freecharge kunal shah doesnt see payments solutions as a longterm business plan payments alone may not be a sustainable business model and will need to piggyback on financial services to make be more viabledigitalwallets are also hampered by the fact that regulation does not permit interoperability between wallets government payment methods such as upi bharat qr and aadhaar pay are all interoperable payment systemsdiversifying businesspayments companies are now waking up to the hard facts and diversifying to make up lost ground paytm has transformed itself into a small finance bank like airtel payments and has started selling gold mobikwik has decided to step into the world of lending and distribution of insurancewhen we got into gold on the retail front it was to provide a more comprehensive wealth management product as to whether we will get into distribution of insurance or mutual funds it would be difficult to say at this point says vijay shekhar sharma ceo paytmwhen asked if the payments business would be viable for the company in the long term sharma said we always wanted to be a diversified payments company for us payments was just the starting point we wanted to acquire customers gain their confidence get regulatory approvalspayments company and digitalwallet provider mobikwik is also diversifying its portfolio for us it was a natural step to grow beyond payments and expand into loans and insurance and other services that arent accessible to the common man collaboration paved the way for us and we have recently partnered with bajaj finserv to move swiftly mobikwik is becoming indias first debit plus credit wallet where people can have exclusive credit lines credit cards and emi cards mapped through the app increasing the purchasing power of users and enabling them to get lending products available at bestinindustry interest rates says upasana taku cofounder mobikwikan investor who recently exited a wallet startup says time is running out for ewallets and they know it there can only be one flipkart