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Showing posts with label NPCI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NPCI. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 June 2017

07:14

HDFC Bank, SBI to start charging for P2P payments on UPI

HDFC Bank, SBI to start charging for P2P payments on UPI

Nearly two years after operationalisation of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), banks have started moving to charge for peer-to-peer payments on the new platform.
Country's largest lender State Bank of India has come out with charges with effect from June 1, while the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has also gone public with its rate structure which will be effective July 10.
"So far, no bank is charging for UPI transactions but at the same time it is at their discretion to levy a reasonable fee towards Person to Person (P2P) transactions for UPI and IMPS," National Payments Corporation of India's chief operating officer Dilip Asbe said in a statement.
A senior NPCI official explained that worldover, charges are levied for such transactions and added that in case of UPI at merchant transactions it is the merchant who pays while for P2P, it is the sender who has to pay.
On the transaction fees front, the critical aspect to be examined is whether there are enough number of transactions happening on UPI which establish a maturity of the platform and also the reasonableness of charges, the official added.
The UPI platform is averaging around one crore transactions with a value of Rs 2,900 crore per month, the NPCI official said, adding the number of transactions needs to be at least 2-3 crore per month for the charges to set in.
The NPCI official said there may be a review on the subject, saying there can be a meeting with bankers which can be called in the next two months to assess the situation.
It was, however, not immediately clear if the P2P transactions on the BHIM App launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will also be chargeable.
When contacted, SBI's deputy managing director Manju Agarwal acknowledged that the bank has put out a circular on UPI charges on its website, but promised to withdraw it soon.
"We are not charging for UPI transactions. The circular will be removed," she said.
An HDFC Bank spokesperson was not reachable for comment, but a senior official pointed out that the charges are applicable from July 10 and there may be a review based on the outcome of such a meeting with NPCI.
SBI is charging Rs 5 per transaction of up to Rs 1 lakh, Rs 15 for transactions between Rs 1-2 lakh and Rs 25 for those between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, while HDFC Bank is proposing Rs 3 for transactions of up to Rs 25,000 and Rs 5 for those between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1 lakh.Billed as a game changing platform in the Indian banking space, UPI was launched in April 2015 and operationalised in August same year.
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Tuesday, 7 March 2017

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Monday, 13 February 2017

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Friday, 10 February 2017

08:04

NPCI expects all public sector banks to join BHIM by February-end

NPCI expects all public sector banks to join BHIM by February-end

New Delhi: With the aim to scale up the usage of Bharat Interface for Money or BHIM, the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) is working to ensure that all the public sector banks (PSBs) are integrated to the app by the end of this month.

“The PSBs which will go live very soon on the platform are Corporation Bank, Punjab and Sindh Bank and five associates of State Bank of India. We are working with these seven banks to ensure that all of them are a part of the platform by the end of this month,” said A. P. Hota, managing director & chief executive officer, NPCI, in a statement.

Currently, 37 banks are already integrated to BHIM including PSBs like State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India. With the seven banks joining the platform very soon, all the PSBs will be a part of BHIM’s interface.

“Since the customer base of PSBs is very large, their participation in BHIM is of crucial importance for the success of this app. We are confident that once all PSBs are a part of BHIM, the user base will jump multiple times,” said Hota.

The app was launched on December 30 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote digital transactions using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a bank-to-bank fund transfer system backed by internet and smartphones, using phone numbers linked to banks.

According to NPCI, till 31 January, 13.8 million customers downloaded the app out of which 3.6 million customers have linked the app to their bank account.

“The gap in the number of app downloads and the number of customers linking the app to their bank account has been because it is observed that most of these customers have downloaded BHIM without checking if their bank is active on the platform,” the statement added.

Last month, a new version 1.2 was launched with additional features like ‘Pay to Aadhaar Number’, and spam report’. The new version also has seven new languages apart from English and Hindi.

 Source:BusinessFortnight
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Thursday, 5 January 2017

06:55

BHIM App, Launched by PM Modi, Explained in 10 Points

BHIM App, Launched by PM Modi, Explained in 10 Points 

HIGHLIGHTS
  • PM Modi launched the Bhim app today for simpler payments without cash
  • Through the app, you can make payments using just a phone number
  • BHIM also supports USSD payments, which work even on basic phones
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched BHIM, described by him as a brand-new app that will amount to “a world wonder.” BHIM - Bharat Interface for Money - is named for Dr BR Ambedkar, said the PM, and is positioned to play a big role in the government’s push for digital transactions.

"Be it a smartphone or a feature phone of Rs 1,000-1,200, BHIM app can be used. There is no need to have Internet connectivity," says PM Modi. "One only needs a thumb. There was a time when an illiterate was called 'angutha chhaap'. That has changed. Your thumb is your bank now.”

BHIM allows customers to transact electronically without having to use a credit or debit card, or by creating and storing a mobile wallet.

Here is your 10-point guide to BHIM:
  1. The app allows you to easily transfer money or make a payment from your bank account using only your phone number. If the shopkeeper uses the BHIM app too, just open the app, choose “send money”, and type in the amount and the merchant's phone number to make the payment. The money will be debited from your account, and credited to the merchant's bank account which are linked by you and the vendor to the BHIM app.
  2. BHIM is now available as an Android version download now, and iOS is coming soon.
  3. The app also allows you to scan a QR code. The merchant can generate his QR code through the BHIM app. To pay him, you'd need to tap the Scan and Pay button in the app, and then scan the QR code.
  4. Even without a smartphone, anyone can use BHIM to make payments.You need to dial *99# from any kind of mobile phone, and this will show a menu - by typing in different numbers you can choose to send money, check your balance, or see transaction history.
  5. To send money, for example, you'd type '1' and hit send, then type '1' again to select mobile number. Next, you'd type in the number and the amount, and then a PIN that can be generated using BHIM. This will work on any phone - even Rs. 1,000 feature phones - without an Internet connection.
  6. Shopkeepers can use the BHIM app and receive money from a smartphone, or if the customer has linked a bank account and her Aadhaar ID, then the merchant can use Aadhaar Pay, an app that was soft-launched days ago. For this, the merchant has to have a smartphone (even a basic Android phone will do) and a Rs. 2,000 fingerprint reader. This is currently being distributed free in Aadhaar Payments pilot projects around the country.
  7. On the shopkeeper's phone, the customer types in her Aadhaar number and chooses her bank. Then, the shopkeeper uses the fingerprint reader for instant confirmation to complete the payment. The customer don't need to carry her Aadhar card, or use a phone, only the merchant needs these.
  8. With a mobile wallet app, you have to load money in the wallet before you can use it. With BHIM and all UPI (United Payments Interface) apps, you can directly connect your phone to your bank account - like a debit card. Payments are happening directly from and to bank accounts, so merchants don't have to worry about transferring wallet earnings to the bank either.
  9. There is a Rs. 10,000 per transaction limit, and Rs. 20,000 per day for BHIM.
  10. All UPI-connected banks accept BHIM - this includes all major Indian banks including SBI, ICICI, Axis, and HDFC. Even banks not connected to UPI can receive money through BHIM through IFSC, an 11-digit code assigned to every bank branch by the Reserve Bank of India.
Source:Gadget360
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Sunday, 18 December 2016

07:03

Digital and Cashless Economy : A New Way of Life after demonetization

Digital and Cashless Economy : A New Way of Life after demonetization


Pay Digital and Win Prizes! As India moves towards a digital and cashless economy, the Government announced on 15th December, 2016 two schemes Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana to give cash awards to consumers and merchants who utilize digital payment instruments for personal consumption expenditures. The prizes range from Rs 1000 to Rs 1 crore and the transactions permitted are from Rs 50 to Rs 3000 to keep the focus on the common man. The schemes will not only give a boost to cashless transactions, but will particularly bring the poor, lower middle class and small businesses into the digital payment fold, and new way of life.

The poorest of poor will be eligible for rewards by using USSD, (the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) System that is applicable to ordinary GSM mobile phones. People in village and rural areas can participate in this scheme through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS). The scheme will become operational with the first draw on 25th December, 2016 (as a Christmas gift to the nation) leading up to a Mega Draw on Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti on 14th April 2017.

The Lucky Grahak Yojana for Consumers provides a daily reward of Rs 1000 to be given to 15,000 lucky consumers for a period of 100 days; and weekly prizes of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10,000 and Rs. 5000 for Consumers who use the alternate modes of digital Payments. This will include all forms of transactions viz. UPI (Unified Payment Interface), USSD, AEPS and RuPay Cards, but will for the time being exclude transactions through Private Credit Cards and Digital Wallets. The Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for Merchants provides Prizes for Merchantsfor all digital transactions conducted at Merchant Establishments and weekly prizes of Rs. 50,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs. 2,500.

There will be a Mega Draw on 14th of April – Ambedkar Jayanti. This will give three Mega Prizes for consumers worth Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh for digital transactions between 8th November, 2016 and 13th April, 2017 to be announced on 14th April, 2017. For merchants too, there will be three Mega Prizes worth Rs 50 lakhs, Rs 25 lakh, Rs 12 lakh for digital transactions from 8thNovember, 2016 to 13th April, 2017 to be announced on 14th April, 2017.

The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), a not for profit company, which has the mandate to guide India towards a cashless society, is the implementing agency for the schemes. The NPCI has been directed to ensure a technical and security audit of the same to ensure that the technical integrity of the process is maintained. The Government shall incur an estimated expenditure of Rs 340 crores on the first phase of the scheme (up to 14th April, 2017).

The Centre has approved a slew of initiatives in February 2016 to encourage digital payments and a transition to less-cash economy in a strategic manner. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted these measures in his Man Ki Baat address in May 2016. Urging people to adopt cashless transactions, he said “If we learn and adapt ourselves to use cashless transactions, then we will not require notes. Under-hand dealings will stop; the influence of black money will be reduced. So I appeal to my countrymen, that we should at least make a beginning. Once we start, we will move ahead with great ease. Twenty years ago who would have thought that so many mobiles would be in our hands. Slowly we cultivated a habit and now we can’t do without those. Maybe this cashless society assumes a similar form. But the sooner this happens, the better it will be.”

Towards this end, the Government had launched a major drive for financial inclusion in terms of opening Jan Dhan accounts, giving a statutory basis for Aadhaar, implementation of Directs Benefits Transfer, introduction of RuPay Cards and Voluntary Disclosure Scheme for unaccounted money. Demonetization of 500 and 1000 Rs. notes on 8th November was another important milestone in this endeavour. Following demonetization, there has been a spurt in the digital payments across the country and both the volume and amount of money transacted through digital methods saw seen manifold increase since 9th November.

Yet, as on date, nearly 95 per cent of India’s personal consumption expenditure transactions are cash-based giving rise to a  very large informal economy, limiting the ability of State to levy and raise taxes. The daily Ru-Pay Cards transactions in the country have risen from 3.85 lakh on 8th November to 16 lakh on 7 December; the e-Wallets transactions have increased from 17 lakhs to 63 lakhs; the UPI transactions from 3721 to 48238; the USSD from 97 to 1263 and PoS (Point of Sale) transactions from 50.2 lakh to 98.1 lakh.

To further accelerate the surge in digital transactions, the Government announced on 8th December an attractive package to promote the use of cashless payments through various concessions like a discount at the rate of 0.75 per cent of the sale price to consumers on purchase of petrol or diesel, if payment is made through digital means. To expand the digital payment infrastructure in rural areas, the Central Government through NABARD decided to extend financial support to eligible banks for deployment of two PoS devices each in one Lakh villages with population of less than 10,000.  These PoS machines are intended to be deployed at primary cooperative societies, milk societies and agricultural input dealers to facilitate agri-related transactions through digital means and serve 75 crore population.

No service tax will be charged on digital transaction charges for transactions upto Rs.2000 per transaction. Railway through its sub urban railway network shall provide incentive by way of discount upto 0.5% to customers for monthly or seasonal tickets from January 1, 2017, if payment is made through digital means. Government has waived service tax charged while making payments through credit card, debit card, charge card or any other payment card; limiting the waiver to payments up to Rs. 2,000 in a single transaction

On 6th December, the Government, as part of the plan to expand the digital payments eco-system and facilitate the move towards cashless transactions, decided that an additional one million new PoS terminals should be installed by 31st March 2017. The Ministry of Labour & Employment and States’ Administration organized 2,73,919 camps to open 24.54 lakh bank accounts for unorganized workers.

Recommending a medium term strategy to promote the growth of digital payments, the Committee on Digital Payments constituted by the Ministry of Finance on 9th December submitted its Final Report to the Finance Minister and wanted the benefits to cover the financially and socially excluded groups.

Explaining the Government policy before the Finance Ministry’s Parliamentary Consultative Committee meet on 15th December, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that digital transactions were a parallel mechanism, not a substitute, for cash transactions and cashless economy was actually a less cash economy, as no economy could be fully cashless. The Finance Minister said that the Government was trying to encourage digitization as much as possible because an excessive cash economy had its own social and economic costs and consequences. The Government incentives to people had evoked a positive response to shift to digital mode of payment. Cyber security measures, he said, were being taken by the banks under RBI supervision.

*Deepak Razdan is a senior journalist and presently Editorial Consultant with The Statesman, New Delhi.

Source:PIBNEWS 


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Monday, 19 September 2016

22:52

Next banking disruption lies in one, open online ledger

Next banking disruption lies in one, open online ledger
Imagine being able to avail a home loan almost as easily as obtaining a loan for buying white goods in an appliance store. Or, having a refund credited to your account within minutes of a failed transaction or cancellation.
This would be possible once banks begin to use the underlying technology of bitcoins called blockchain. Today, bankers spend much of their energies in establishing contracts, ascertaining identity and going through records to check whether a certain transaction did take place in the past. The technology that has the potential to address these problems is blockchain — an electronic public ledger that records virtual currency transactions which cannot be tweaked or deleted.
After being seen as a challenger to traditional payments, the bitcoin threat wore off following the collapse of a bitcoin exchange. Ironically, while bitcoin's key feature is the anonymity it provides owners, blockchain's killer application is provenance.
Blockchain is a secure record of historical transactions, collected into blocks, chained in chronological order and distributed across a number of different servers to create reliable provenance. It can be accessed by all those who choose to pay and receive payments in bitcoins. There is no need for a central record-keeping authority as transaction information is available to all registered bitcoin players.
The blockchain technology can irrefutably link transactions to individuals and make banking a whole lot simpler, secure, cheaper and faster. Today, the financial sector spends billions of dollars to establish trust among unrelated parties on an open network like the internet in areas like the prevention of fraud and KYC by creating central clearing agencies. Blockchain has the potential to transform finance and do away with most of these. The World Economic Forum (WEF), in a report released on August 12, said that blockchain technology "will fundamentally alter the way financial institutions do business around the world".
Kotak Mahindra Bank is exploring certain international payments corridors by tying up directly with multinational lenders using blockchain. "This is something where banks have started to come on board. There are quite a few banks in Australia and Europe which are using the technology for cross-border payments," says Dipak Gupta, joint MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The tipping point for blockchain in payments could come when a larger number of banks take the plunge as that would create an ecosystem of players using it for remittances. "Blockchain is one of the new technologies that we would like to explore. Across the world, banks are finding use cases for it. But it will ultimately work when more banks adopt it," said Rajiv Anand, executive director, Axis Bank.
ICICI Bank, meanwhile, is looking at internal uses for blockchain. "We do think that the idea of having a single ledger — a single source of truth — can revolutionize the settlement that we do within the bank," said B Madhivanan, chief digital and technology officer, ICICI Bank. The bank is working on a pilot.
Madhivanan sees a potential use for blockchain in KYC. "A customer can be identified by a number of things — PAN, email, Facebook and Twitter IDs or a driving licence. Blockchain gives you a nice formation where all of this can be put in one record and cannot be changed by anybody," he adds. Currently, they can't pull together this unstructured data and depend on a central authority like credit bureaus for the information.
Kotak Bank also sees potential uses for blockchain in transactions within the bank, or stock exchanges to bank or broker transactions and settlements among various entities or organizations where the bank can use it to manage the flow of information.
Earlier this year, Uphold, a cloud-based financial services platform that facilitates cross-border payments, announced a partnership with Yes Bank and IDFC Bank to bring a "more affordable, accessible and innovative solution". The company, formerly known as Bitreserve, enables transfers in 33 nations using the blockchain technology.
As blockchain gathers traction, regulators do not want to be caught unawares. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) — which provides the technology backbone for the payments industry — held an "ideathon" last month to understand how the new technology would change the future.
"While it was clear that the technology is radical, unless the entire ecosystem moves toward it, it is hardly of any significance," said A P Hota, CEO & MD, NPCI. He added that banks were of the opinion that "road building" and setting standards should be done by NPCI.

Source:Banking Updates
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Friday, 16 September 2016

07:41

Bharat Bill: pay bills anytime, anywhere

Bharat Bill: pay bills anytime, anywhere

Currently, bill payment facilitators have to tie-up bilaterally with different billers. The new system, a pilot now, would give access to several billers to all participants

The process to make your bill utility payments easier began last month with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launching the pilot project for Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). NPCI is an umbrella organisation for all retail payments in the country.

As per the framework, a customer will have a single location—physical or electronic—where she can pay bills such as for electricity, telephone, water, gas, and direct-to-home television. There will be instant confirmation once the payment is made.

Payments can be either made in cash or through any of the various electronic modes of payment. Cheque payments are not a part of the system. Participants who will function as operating units (OUs), will carry out these transactions for the customers.

The initiative is in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) vision to facilitate payments for customers anytime, anywhere.Read More.. Click Here

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Monday, 2 May 2016

18:49

AADHAAR PAYMENT BRIDGE SYSTEM-FAQ

AADHAAR PAYMENT BRIDGE SYSTEM-FAQ
1) What is Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System?
It is a unique payment system implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which uses Aadhaar number as a central key for electronically channelizing the Government subsidies andbenefits in the Aadhaar Enabled Bank Accounts (AEBA) of the intended beneficiaries.
It is a payment system based on Aadhaar numbers issued by UIDAI & IIN (Institution Identification
Number) issued by NPCI. APB System is used by the Government Departments and Agencies for the
transfer of benefits and subsidies under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme launched by
Government of India.
2) Why is Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System required?
The APB System sub-serves the goal of Financial Inclusion and provides an opportunity to the
Government to attempt financial re-engineering of its subsidy management program. The
implementation of APB System has also lead to electronification of a large number of retail payment
transactions which were predominantly either in cash or cheque.
3) What are the benefits of Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System?
  • Eliminates inordinate delays, multiple channels & paper-work involved in the existing system.
  •  Transfers benefits & subsidies in a seamless & timely manner and directly into the Aadhaar
  • Enabled Bank Account.
  •  In case of change in bank account, customer is not required to convey the bank account details
  • or change in bank details to the Government Department or Agency.


Continue Reading:http://www.npci.org.in/documents/FAQs_on_APBS_for_Banks1.pdf

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Saturday, 26 March 2016

19:02

Unified Payments Interface will be as transformational as Aadhaar

Unified Payments Interface will be as transformational as Aadhaar

Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a new process in electronic funds transfer, will be inaugurated by Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on April 11. Conceived and being implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the guidance of former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani, this mode of payment is likely to be as transformational as Aadhaar when it gets adopted by most banks.

Initially, 29 banks are likely to adopt it, and certification is already in progress for 12 banks. Other banks will join soon. The process will ride on the existing infrastructure of Immediate Payments Service (IMPS), which facilitates money transfer from any bank/wallet account to any other bank/wallet account as permitted by RBI “instantly” 24×7. UPI enhances the user experience of IMPS with some additional processes.

Firstly, UPI enables ‘instant collect’, which was not possible under IMPS. It addresses the current problem of about 30% decline in e-commerce payment transactions due to a complicated transaction flow. With UPI, the friction gets minimised and e-commerce market players can pull money from shoppers easily. Cash on delivery (COD) transactions can also be completed by the delivery staff by collecting money electronically while delivering the goods.

A biller can collect bills from consumers by automating the collection process on the due date, supplementing thereby the already existing ECS (debit)/NACH (debit) process. Clubs/schools can collect periodic fees. A daughter can now make a UPI request to her father’s account and the father, recognising that the request has come from a valid source, can authorise the transaction or even reject it.

The father can also “hold” the transaction for verifying the transaction before authorising it with a one-time password (OTP) or static PIN. The landlord can pull the money from the tenant. There can be multiple usage of such nature for online/face-to-face payments. Secondly, UPI has a facility to identify a bank customer with an email-like virtual address.
A customer can create a unique financial address in his/her bank linked with the bank account number at the backend. The customer will use only the virtual address while dealing with others without sharing the account details. For instance, a customer at State Bank of India (SBI) can create an address like shortname@ sbiormobilenumber@sbi.

Looking at the domain name sbi, NPCI will route the transaction to SBI and SBI will apply the credit/debit by resolving the virtual address to the account number. A customer can have multiple virtual addresses for multiple accounts in multiple banks. There is no account number mapper anywhere other than the customer’s own bank to ensure privacy of customer data.
The advantage of such an approach is the customer can freely share the financial address to others. Thirdly, UPI will operate primarily on smartphones, leveraging their ever-increasing utilities. Though the current base of smartphones in India is about 300 million (December 2015), the number is likely to touch 400 million in two years. This will help customers to do a whole range of banking operations and shopping from the mobile itself.

Smartphones will also enable banks and their certified merchants to integrate the library being supplied by NPCI so that the process of capturing the authentication information is secure and uniform across banks similar to customers providing authentication information on ATMs irrespective of bank ownership. As mobile phones get Aadhaar-ready, biometric authentication would also be possible through them.

Fourthly, UPI will enable single-click two-factor authentication with mobile itself as the first-factor using the unique hardware identification of the smartphone, and OTP/static mobile PIN as the second. Banks will compete with each other to provide simple and user-friendly solutions without compromising on the regulatory guidelines on two-factor authentication. A few banks are enhancing the security without compromising simplicity.

For instance, the application can have a facility for the user to maintain a list of virtual addresses from which pull request would be permitted or to pre-register the beneficiaries. Banks can have applications with utilities to remind when bill payments are due. Customers can also generate various reports on transactions made.
In summary, UPI promises to be truly transformational. Let us watch how it shapes the future of payment systems in the country.

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Saturday, 19 March 2016

21:14

ECS will be replaced with NACH from 01/04/2016.

ECS will be replaced with NACH from 01/04/2016.

Kindly ensure that all ECS payment to be made through till 31/03/2016.

NACH stands for National Automated Clearing House.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has implemented “National Automated Clearing House (NACH)” for Banks, Financial Institutions, Corporates and Government a web based solution to facilitate interbank, high volume, electronic transactions which are repetitive and periodic in nature. NACH System can be used for making bulk transactions towards distribution of subsidies, dividends, interest, salary, pension etc. and also for bulk transactions towards collection of payments pertaining to telephone, electricity, water, loans, investments in mutual funds, insurance premium etc.

National Automated Clearing House (NACH) is a centralised system, launched with an aim to consolidate multiple ECS systems running across the country and provides a framework for the harmonization of standard & practices and removes local barriers/inhibitors. NACH system will provide a national footprint and is expected to cover the entire core banking enabled bank branches spread across the geography of the country irrespective of the location of the bank branch.

With the implementation of NACH system, NPCI intends to provide a single set of rules (operating and business), open standards and best industry practices for electronic transactions which are common across all the Participants, Service Providers and Users etc. NACH system also supports Financial Inclusion measures initiated by Government, Government Agencies and Banks by providing support to Aadhaar based transactions.

The NACH system facilitates the member banks to design their own products and also addresses specific needs of the banks & corporates including a refined Mandate Management System (MMS) and an online Dispute Management System (DMS) coupled with strong information exchange and customised MIS capabilities.

The NACH system provides a robust, secure and scalable platform to the participants with both transaction and file based transaction processing capabilities. It has best in class security features, cost efficiency & payment performance (STP) coupled with multi-level data validation facility accessible to all participants across the country.

NACH’s Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System, developed by NPCI has been helping the Government and Government Agencies in making the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme a success. APB System has been successfully channelizing the Government subsidies and benefits to the intended beneficiaries using the Aadhaar numbers. The APB System links the Government Departments and their sponsor banks on one side and beneficiary banks and beneficiary on the other hand.

Source:BankingUpdates
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Friday, 23 October 2015

09:24

RBI invites applications for Bharat Bill payment units

RBI invites applications for Bharat Bill payment units

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has invited applications from entities currently engaged in bill payments and desirous of operating as Bharat Bill Payment System Operating Units (BBPOUs) under the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).

The BBPS will be an authorised payment system operated by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

RBI came out with the final guidelines for BBPS in November 2014, which will help track all the payments being made in the economy, including cash payments to utilities, schools, and telcos among others.

As per the RBI circular, BBPOUs will function as entities facilitating collection of repetitive payments for everyday utility services, such as, electricity, water, gas, telephone and Direct-to-Home (DTH). 

The scope of bills covered under the BBPS would gradually be expanded to include other types of repetitive payments.

The apex bank had set a Rs.100-crore net worth and domestic registration as qualifying conditions for those seeking to be authorised collection agents.

The central bank has kept November 20, 2015 as the last date for accepting the applications
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Tuesday, 8 September 2015

09:44

Lack of bank sponsors hit white label ATMs

Lack of bank sponsors hit white label ATMs

Non-banking entities operating automated teller machines, known as white label ATM operators, are struggling to meet the targets set by the Reserve Bank of India, mainly because they are unable to find banks to sponsor such ATMs in small towns, calling into question their very relevance in bridging the urban-rural gap in financial inclusion.

White label ATM (WLA) operators do not fall directly under banking regulations, but there needs to be a sponsor bank to load and manage cash in each WLA. While the RBI laid out three schemes for WLA operators, most players have opted for 'Scheme A' where each operator has to open at least 9,000 ATMs in three years. Under the scheme, for every WLA installed in tier I and II cities, they need to operate three in tier III, IV, V or VI towns. The RBI defines a tier III city as a location having population between 20,000 and 49,999, whereas a tier VI town has a population of less than 5,000.

So far, a total of only 9,600 WLAs have been rolled out by seven operators since the launch of the scheme.

Jayant D' Mello, director - ATM business, Emerging Payments and International - at Hitachi Payment Services a WLA operator running the 'Money Spot ATM' said there is a lack of sponsor banks in small cities.

"The only possible options for sponsor banks in these areas are the public sector banks. But partnering with PSBs is not easy. Hence we have to tie up with private banks which have to transport cash from a tier II city to these cities, resulting in a substantial increase in the cost of operations," he said.

Reduction in interchange fee, or fee paid between banks for acceptance of cardbased transactions, from Rs 18 to Rs 15 and the limit on the number of free transactions, too, were hampering the growth of WLAs, D'Mello said.

Punit Shah, partner at tax and regulatory advisory firm Dhruva Advisors LLP, said higher interchange fee could help growth of WLAs. "Increased operating cost viz., security charges, rentals etc. makes a case for higher interchange fee, especially considering the lower level of footfalls in tier III to VI cities," he said. "Such an increase may have to be borne by the issuer banks, unless passed on to the customers through increased transaction charges."

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the National Financial Switch (NFS) for WLA operators, said NFS steering committee is responsible for taking a a decision on interchange fee. "The roll out of the ATMs under WLA scheme has been slower than expected," it said in a note to ET. "WLAs are in process of reviewing their deployment strategies," it said.

The operators are indeed hopeful. D' Mello of Hitachi said WLAs could help in the recent drive for financial inclusion by the RBI and other regulatory bodies. He said the central bank is concerned with the deployment paucity and is organising discussions with WLA operators and seeking their suggestions to improve the success of the programme. "Internationally banks have always been supportive of WLA deployment. We are not competition; rather, we fill a hole in the places where there is no guarantee of transaction and provide cover for 15-20% of non-bank deployed locations," he said. "We can extend the payments bank network by doing cobranding, accepting payment bank cards, doing bill payments for payment banks and WLA can be used for paying amenities like a land tehsil bill," D' Mello said.
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Sunday, 30 August 2015

13:29

NPCI to double capacity to 100 million transactions per day -Payment Banks

Payment banks: NPCI to double capacity to 100 million transactions per day

With Reserve Bank granting permission to open 11 payments banks, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is more than doubling its server capacity to handle 100 million transactions a day.

"We are ramping up the switching capacity from 40 million per day to 100 million. We are fully geared for all the payments banks," its managing director and chief executive A P Hota said last week.

He said the RBI-promoted NPCI, which hosts switches necessary for completing financial transactions, has already floated a request for proposal (RFP) for the same and expects to finish the ramp-up in three years.

At present, it has capacity to handle 40 million transactions a day and has witnessed it reaching a peak of 13 million, he said.

"We are doing a futuristic switch that has a capacity of 100 million because we believe that in the next 5-6 years, volumes (of transactions) will grow 4-5 fold," he added.

With an eye on deepening financial inclusion, the Reserve Bank gave in-principle nod to 11 entities to start a Payments Bank, which will help people do more transactions like fund transfers, bill payments, recharges etc.

The successful aspirants include deep pocketed entities which have been backed by industrial families like the Ambanis, Birlas, Mahindras, Sanghavis, Mittals, and also the Department of Post.

Experts have been saying that the introduction of the PBs, where the RBI has shown a bias to services like mobile phones having a huge network, will see a huge spurt in transaction volumes as each of the players gets busy to leverage its network and earn more fees.

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