Digital payments have made consumers smarter about how they spend, Mastercard's Asia-Pacific Head Gautam Aggarwal has said. The businessman explained that digital payments give people better visibility and control over their finances, allowing them to track transactions and understand spending patterns in ways that cash never could.
"We want people to be more aware of what they are spending and how they are spending. Today, digital payment allows you to be a lot smarter. There is this argument that it has made buying things easier, so one is spending more, but since one can track more, it has made one smarter," he said at the NDTV World Summit 2025.
Aggarwal spoke about India's position as a global leader in digital payments, calling it "undoubtedly the most advanced payments ecosystem in the world today." He said that over 50 per cent of the world's digital transactions take place in India. Yet, only 350 million of the 900 million daily participants in the economy are actively using digital payments.
He attributed this growth to three key factors: innovation from both local and global fintech players, progressive regulation, and a culture of "coopetition", where companies compete and collaborate simultaneously. India is also the only country fully tokenised for online card transactions and is moving towards tokenisation for offline payments, a development Aggarwal called "huge" in terms of security and convenience.
On the question of whether digital payments encourage overspending, Aggarwal said that while digital payments can lead to some impulsive buying, they also help people track their spending and become more financially aware.
"Earlier, with cash, you knew your household budget, but you couldn't break down where it went. Today, digital payments get you smarter about your spend," he explained.
Looking ahead, Aggarwal predicted the physical card will eventually disappear, replaced by digital forms on phones, wearables, or even rings. He described a future of frictionless payments, where biometric authentication replaces OTPs, and transactions happen seamlessly in the background.
"Soon, you'll walk in and out of stores without even realising you've made a payment," he said.
Aggarwal said that India's mix of innovation, regulation, and collaboration has made it a global leader in fintech, but also pointed out that the journey is just beginning.
