Tag: npci

  • Cashfree Payments Partners with NPCI to Launch ‘AutoPay on QR’ for Subscription-based Businesses

    Cashfree Payments has announced the launch of ‘AutoPay on QR’ in collaboration with NPCI. The solution would enable businesses to boost ROI on advertising expenditures.

    Cashfree Payments, a leading payment, and API banking solutions company, has announced the launch of ‘AutoPay on QR’ in collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The new solution enables subscription-based businesses to enhance their customer acquisition, support retention, and facilitate rapid growth.

    ‘AutoPay on QR’ Streamlines Subscription Onboarding

    Cashfree Payments’ ‘AutoPay on QR’ facilitates subscription-based businesses to boost return on investment (ROI) on ad spends by enabling mandate creation in just two clicks. Subscription-based businesses can seamlessly integrate their subscription QR codes into various marketing channels, including online ads, newspapers, websites, TV, and product packaging, improving the value derived from promotional campaigns.

    So far, to subscribe to an investment, content publishing, or OTT platform, customers needed to first download the app, set up an account, choose the plan, proceed with the payment service provider (PSP) app of choice, and then could access the subscription, which resulted in poor onboarding experience. Cashfree Payments ‘Autopay on QR’ now transforms the customer onboarding process into a swift two-step workflow, which includes scanning the QR code and approving an e-mandate via UPI apps within 30 seconds. This eliminates the mandate to download an app or register on the website and directly activates a unique subscription for each customer. Cashfree Payments’ ‘AutoPay on QR’ is designed to turn one-time customers into paying subscribers, swiftly, seamlessly, and securely.

    CEO & Founder’s Comment

    Commenting on the launch of the product, Akash Sinha, CEO and co-founder, Cashfree Payments, said, “We are excited to partner with NPCI and launch ‘AutoPay on QR’, which empowers businesses to offer an elevated experience during the subscription activation process, while taking greater control of their business’ growth journey. This will help the merchants convert their users into lifetime customers by making it easier for users to pay. Our commitment remains centered on addressing the needs of businesses, driving the development of innovative and efficient solutions that enhance their operational effectiveness, and foster rapid growth.”

    About Cashfree Payments

    Founded by IIIT Hyderabad alumnus Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta, Cashfree Payments is among the leading payment service providers in India, processing transactions worth $40 billion annually. Cashfree Payments today, with over 50% market share among payment processors, leads the way in bulk disbursals in India with its Payouts and is also among the leading online payment aggregators. State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender in India, invested in Cashfree Payments underscoring the company’s role in building a robust payments ecosystem. The company works closely with all leading banks to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that powers the company’s products. It is also integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Wix, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Paytm, and Google Pay.

    Cashfree Payments enables more than 3,00,000 businesses with payment collections, vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty, and rewards. Apart from India, Cashfree Payments products are used in eight other countries including the United States, Canada, and the UAE. The company is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, SBI, and was incubated by PayPal.


    Top 11 Best Online Payment Gateways in India 2023
    A payment gateway provides a secure and convenient way for customers to make purchases online. Here are the best online payment gateways in India.


  • Will UPI Become a Paid Service?

    The National Payments Corporation of India was formed in 2008 with the objective of integrating all payment mechanisms existing in the country and making them uniform for retail payments. However, the majority of the population was opting for cash payments as retailers encouraged this method. There was also the problem of almost half the population that had no access to any form of banking service. This also precipitated the issue of black or illegal money and corruption within the country.

    By 2012, the RBI had envisioned building an authorized payment and settlement system that was safe, efficient, accessible, inclusive, and interoperable. This was done as a part of the Green Initiative and to encourage the lesser use of paper in the domestic payment market. UPI was officially launched in 2016 for public use.

    An Overview of the Unified Payments Interface
    The Growth of UPI and Its Features
    Will UPI Become a Paid Service?

    How UPI Has Changed the Indian Economy?

    An Overview of the Unified Payments Interface

    The CEO of Netmagic Solutions says UPI has become one of the most successful deep-tech innovations coming out of India. It works on an interoperable four-pillar push-pull model. There is a beneficiary at the front end, the payment service provider, and a beneficiary back end bank that settles the monetary transaction for the users.

    As it began to gain traction and prominence in 2019, the Ministry of Finance nullified the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI which catapulted the number of low-value transactions, making huge gains on real-time transaction volume data.

    From 1st January 2019, UPI became a popular payment option for IPOs. By March 2020, the transaction limit was increased from INR 1 lakh to INR 2 lakhs, which was again increased to INR 5 lakhs in December 2021 for Retail Direct Scheme and IPO applications.

    In its first monetary policy of FY 2022-2023, RBI has proposed using a UPI-based QR code for a cardless cash withdrawal facility from ATMs. ToneTag launched VoiceSE, in partnership with NSDL Payments Bank and NPCI, which will enable users to make UPI payments using voice in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali language. In 2021, the value of UPI transactions was more than INR 73 lakh crores, recording a 110% rise from INR 33.87 lakh crores in 2020.


    An In-depth Look at the UPI App War: Who is leading the UPI Market?
    The cashless UPI payments have seen a massive boost during the covid and have started a war between the apps, but who is leading the market?.


    The Growth of UPI and Its Features

    The Volume of UPI-Based Digital Payments Across India from FY17 to FY22
    The Volume of UPI-Based Digital Payments Across India from FY17 to FY22

    Within two years of its launch, by 16th August 2018, UPI 2.0 was launched enabling their users to link Overdraft accounts to a UPI handle. There was an added feature of the AutoPay facility for recurring payments, and users were able to pre-authorize transactions by issuing a mandate for a specific merchant. The newer version also included a feature to view and store the invoice for transactions.

    By August 2021, Bank of Baroda, Paytm Payments Bank and State Bank of India were live on UPI AutoPay and registered 204,000, 186,000 and 660,000 mandates respectively. Plans were in place for NCPI to expand AutoPay to international markets and operationalize real-time payment dispute resolution covering 90% of complaints by September 2022.

    RuPay credit cards were allowed to be linked with UPI from 8th June 2022.   Currently, NPCI is working on a real-time feature that will reduce the time period taken by banks to unblock funds over time-out or transaction from 24 hours to 30 seconds.

    Continuing the growth of UPI and its features, the RBI Governor launched UPI 123PAY on 8th March 2022, offering 4 payment options to UPI users:

    1. App-based functionality where a mobile phone manufacturer can install a UPI app through over-the-programming that can be used for payment.
    2. Missed calls through which customers can use a dedicated merchant payment number by giving a missed call. The incoming authentication call will ask for PIN verification to complete the transaction.
    3. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based where the payment transaction will complete using pre-defined phone numbers.
    4. Payment in offline mode through sound-based proximity data communication.

    On 17th November 2021, NPCI International Payments Limited signed an MoU with PPRO Financial, a UK-based financial services firm, to expand the acceptance of UPI into foreign markets, specifically in China and the US, which accounts for half of all transactions from India.

    Onboarding of NRI/NRE Accounts

    Earlier this month, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) released a notice stating that Non-resident accounts like NRI/NRE accounts attached to international mobile numbers will be permitted to transact with UPI.  To begin with, mobile numbers of ten countries will be enabled.  These countries are Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hongkong, Oman, Qatar, United States of America, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

    The NPCI, in its notice, has clarified that these accounts will be permitted to transact as long as the member banks ensure strict adherence to FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) regulations and the guidelines issued by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India).  All the UPI members including banks and payment platforms have been instructed by the NPCI to ensure that they are completely compliant to all the legalities by April 30, 2023.

    Lauding this move, Rajsri Regan, Head of Development – Banking and Payments, India & Philippines, FIS said – “NPCI has been working to expand and boost the use of UPI across the world and this move will widen the use of digital payments as Indians living overseas will also be able to make instant transactions.”  This facility will soon be extended to mobile numbers of other countries as well.

    Will UPI Become a Paid Service?

    The Ministry of Finance's Tweet About UPI Services
    The Ministry of Finance’s Tweet About UPI Services

    The government had made transactions over UPI free of cost to encourage faster and deeper penetration of digital payments post demonetisation and especially, the pandemic. This is the government’s zero MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) framework in which neither the customers nor the merchants pay for utilizing UPI services.

    However, in a discussion paper that RBI released in early August 2022, it said that as a fund transfer system bears a resemblance to the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service), the charges in UPI need to be similar to the charges that are applicable in IMPS for fund transfer transactions.

    Furthermore, UPI service providers like PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm Payments Bank have not earned any revenue for the last couple of years for their services. Industry executives are debating that with the setup and adoption of a robust digital payment infrastructure the time has come for them to earn revenue from these transactions so that more players are enticed to enter the UPI service space to build further financial inclusion.

    The Finance Ministry has stepped in very recently and has tweeted –  “UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public and productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means.”

    UPI payment platforms like Google Pay and Paytm have amassed millions of active users and have a deep data mine to access to fine-tune their products. Also, they have other avenues for revenue building. The payment platforms earn a commission from the service provider whenever there is a bill payment for utilities like electricity and water as well as mobile recharges and DTH recharge payments. To these payment platforms data substitutes for revenue to a certain extent.

    In the immediate future, it remains unlikely that UPI will become a paid service.

    Conclusion

    The penetration and adoption of UPI continues to grow as the service itself seeks to grow and expand to include more and more features. While the future is bright for the UPI platform, it will be a wait-and-watch game to see whether the service in the future might attract charges or not.

    FAQs

    What is UPI?

    UPI stands for Unified Payments System. It is a system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India that supports multiple bank accounts in a single mobile application. It facilitates inter-bank, peer-to-peer, and person-to-merchant transactions.

    Will UPI become a paid service?

    There has been suspicion among the people that there may be the possibility of UPI transactions carrying a service charge. However, to clear people’s suspicion, the Finance Ministry recently made a tweet saying that there is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services.

    Some of the most popular UPI apps are:

    • Google Pay
    • BHIM
    • Paytm
    • PhonePe
    • Amazon Pay
  • UPI transactions Fall by 20% due to Lockdown, Lowest in 12 Months

    Due to the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, UPI has recorded transactions of less than one billion for the month of April after 12 months of constant growth. This is the first time in the past seven months that UPI volume went below the one billion mark. According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI has registered 0.99 billion transactions amounting to Rs 1,51,140 crore(Rs 1.51 trillion).

    Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an RBI regulated entity. UPI can be used through various apps like Google Pay and PhonePe to make direct payments from one bank account to another.

    The lockdown imposed by government due to COVID-19 has caused everything to shut down or just semi-operational. The coronavirus outbreak has devasted many sectors of human life, let it be financial sector, industrial sector, etc. resulting into economic crisis.  Yet, India’s success with unified payments interface (UPI) has continued to bring essential services to consumers amid the lockdown as well.

    Though the government was able to transfer the relief money through UPI in the bank accounts of crores of Indians, UPI witnessed 20.8% drop in volume and a 26.7% fall in value as compared to the previous month. As corona effect, UPI had registered a little drop in payments volume in March resulting from 1.25 billion transactions worth Rs 2,06,462 crore or Rs 2.06 trillion.

    Moreover, along with UPI, NPCI’s real-time payments service IMPS has also registered a sharp fall in volume as well as the value of transactions. In April, IMPS processed 122.47 million payments worth Rs 1,21,140.79 crore which is almost half of the previous month. In the previous month i.e. March, the figure was 216.82 million transactions worth Rs 2,01,961.70 crore.

    The decline is shocking as in February 2020, the RBI governor, Shaktikanta Das, had highlighted that digital payments accounted for almost 97% of the daily payment system transactions in terms of volume. He also mentioned that digital payments had accelerated by 50% in terms of volume in the last five years.

    However, UPI body NPCI’s CEO Dilip Asbe said,
    “ For the last five years, the number of transactions of UPI has been growing continuously month-on-month. But now there has been a slight drop in the volume due to the lockdown. The drop in volumes is due to near-zero restricted spends such as on e-commerce, travel, and similar online platforms. We expect volumes to pick up soon.”

    Reasons behind the Drop in Transactions

    It was anticipated that a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic would affect the digital payment volumes. However, financial experts were assured that digital payments will not get affected adversely but rather continue to grow as people would rely on digital transactions to avoid physical contact.

    During the initial days of the lockdown, e-commerce, foodtech, grocery as well as other online platforms were unable to operate. This led to gradual fall in transactions but later the government had allowed essential services to continue. Moreover, payments to PM-CARES via UPI have been the driving force behind UPI’s growth which is still 20.8% drop and these numbers are only in a few million.

    Yet, transactions did not comeback to the normal as government only allowed transactions on essentials. Hence, a majority of e-commerce services are still waiting for government orders. Soon, the government is likely to relax the norms for e-commerce platforms and allow them to deliver non-essential goods as well.

    According to payment gateway Razorpay’s digital transaction report, for the month of April the transactions in the logistics have dropped by 96%, the travel sector has declined by 87%, food, and beverage by 68% and groceries by 54%. In the last 30 days, transactions in cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai took a hit of 43%, 32% and 25% respectively. The report recorded transactions between, when the lockdown was announced.

    Razorpay’s report also stated that UPI emerged as the most popular digital payment method from March 24 to April 23,  with 43% of the total transactions during the period. It was followed by card payments with 39% and net banking with 10%. However, compared to previous month, transactions through UPI declined by 37%, cards by 30% and net banking by 28%.

    Digital payment
    Government has asked people to prefer Contactless Payment

    Travel Restrictions affected the Digital Payments

    The fall in UPI and digital payments is not only because of global and national lockdowns and restrictions on non-essential segments but due to restrictions on tour, travel as well. During the lockdown, people are not allowed to travel by train or aeroplane. This resulted into massive fall in transactions as people cannot book tickets of train or plane.

    The report revealed that the metro cities were affected the most and the impact was still limited in other cities and towns. This difference in impact is more significant in metro cities because the number of people travelling by air, especially for work, is also higher in the metros. The report added that leading firms are also processing fewer online and offline digital transactions with air travel, hospitality, and retail being the three most-impacted sectors.


    Read More: Coronavirus Impact on Digital Payments Startups


    Steps taken to deal with the Drop

    As of now, NPCI seems prepared to handle the lockdown. CEO Dilip Asbe said that NPCI can multiple sessions and has a spare capacity to handle the demand. In order to ensure that everything keeps running smoothly, around 5% of the NPCI’s workforce is still going to office.

    NPCI has already devised a plan for the situation with due consideration of all the factors. Asbe said that NPCI has received complaints from some businesses about delays in cheque clearing. He added that there could be issues on the last mile. While we are in touch with banks, there might be some issues with uploading because of the lockdown.

    These issues are might be hard to resolve now as most of the workforce isn’t available now. However, Asbe said that the main objective here is to keep employees safe. If they are safe, the operations can be managed. There are things we cannot disclose, but there is enough backup in case something goes wrong.

    Government is also using UPI technology for facilitating the transfer of money in the bank accounts of beneficiaries within a day under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). He noted that besides this transfer of relief funds, the government has been using UPI for transferring monetary perks in various schemes such as Ujwala and MNREGA.

    After the success of the implementation of UPI in these schemes, many state governments are now relying on UPI technology to transfer funds under various schemes. Madhya Pradesh government which recently transferred some relief money in the accounts of lakhs of construction workers. PM Narendra Modi has urged people to go for digital payment to ensure safety from the infection.


    Also Read: Best Payment Gateways in India for Your Business


    Meanwhile, several big names in the Indian startup ecosystem have come forward to appeal. Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog and Rajan Anandan, managing director of Sequoia Capital India, have been encouraging people to make online payments. Both Kant and Anandan through social media have emphasised that digital payments are the safest way to make payments to ensure minimum exposure to coronavirus.

  • Everything You Need To Know About NPCI

    The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlements systems in India. It is an initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Bank Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Act, 2007, for creating a robust infrastructure in India for any kind of retail payments and settlements. Created with an intention to provide a fair infrastructure to the entire Indian Banking system, it is Not-for-Profit in nature and has made it possible to create payments both physically as well as electronically.

    NPCI
    National Payments Corporation of India

    Management Team

    Under the non-Executive Chairmanship of Mr. Biswamohan Mahapatra, a veteran who has served 33 years at RBI, the organization is owned by a consortium of major banks. The Board of Directors consists of nominees from the Reserve Bank of India and from nine core promoter banks.

    There are nine main promoter banks in India which are:

    • State Bank of India
    • Canara Bank
    • Punjab National Bank
    • Bank of India
    • Union Bank of India
    • Bank of Baroda
    • ICICI Bank
    • HDFC Bank
    • HSBC

    Also read: Razorpay – Facilitating the SME’s with effortless online payment mechanisms!


    The corporation portfolio currently includes various services such as:

    Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

    Unified Payments Interface
    Unified Payments Interface

    Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing, and merchant payments under a single hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience.

    With the above context in mind, NPCI conducted a pilot launch with 21 member banks on 11th April 2016 by Dr. Raghuram G Rajan (ex-Governor of RBI) at Mumbai. Banks have now uploaded their UPI enabled Apps on Google Play store.

    The Participants of the service include the payer, payee, remitter bank, beneficiary bank, NPCI, bank account holders, and merchants. Some examples of UPI apps that you may already be using are PayTm, BHIM, PhonePe, Axis Pay, and many more.

    RuPay

    RuPay
    RuPay

    RuPay, which literally translates to Rupee and Payment merged together, is a domestic card scheme launched by NPCI in 2012 to fulfill the Reserve Bank Of India’s desire to have a domestic, open loop, and multilateral system of payments in India . In India, 90% of credit card transactions and almost all debit card transactions are domestic; however, the cost of transactions remained high due to the monopoly of foreign gateways like Visa and Mastercard.

    RuPay facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions. NPCI maintains ties with Discover Financial to enable the card scheme to gain international acceptance.

    Lower costs and affordability, customized product offering for Indian customers, interoperability between payment channels and products, and protection of information related to Indian consumers are just some of the advantages of RuPay as claimed by NPCI.

    • RuPay Contactless

    It is a contact-less technology feature that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contact-less payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device. This is an EMV-compatible, “contactless” payment feature similar to Mastercard Contactless, Visa Contactless and the ExpressPay, using RFID technology. All three use the same symbol. Contactless can currently be used on transactions up to ₹2000.

    RuPay Contactless
    RuPay Contactless

    NPCI developed RuPay Contactless’s specifications are open standards, interoperable, scalable, and can be adopted by all card schemes. RuPay Contactless (Transit as well as Retail) offers the unique proposition of one card for all payments. This card can be used for transit payments (bus, metro,cab etc.), toll, parking, small value offline retail payments, as well as normal day to day retail payments.

    One Card Many Benefits
    One Card Many Benefits

    Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)

    BHIM
    Bharat Interface for Money

    Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is a mobile application that lets you make quick payment transactions using Unified Payment Interface (UPI). You can make instant bank-to-bank payments and Pay and collect money using  your mobile number or Virtual Payment Address (UPI ID). More than 125 lakhs citizens have been using the BHIM app since 2017.

    Unlike mobile wallets (PayTM, MobiKwik, mPesa, Airtel Money, etc) which hold money, the BHIM app is only a mechanism which transfers money between different bank accounts. Transactions on BHIM are instantaneous and can be done 24/7 including weekends and bank holidays.

    Users can create their own QR code for a fixed amount of money, which is helpful in merchant-seller-buyer transactions. Users can also have more than one payment address. If the 12-digit Aadhaar number is listed as a payment ID, the BHIM app will not require any biometric authentication or prior registration with the bank or Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

    At present, there is no charge for transactions from ₹1 to ₹1 lakh. The minimum transaction amount should not be less than ₹1. A maximum of 20 transactions are allowed in a day. Some bank might however levy a nominal charge as UPI or IMPS transfer fee. Currently the fund transfer limit has been set to a maximum of ₹20,000 per transaction, and a maximum of ₹40,000 per day.

    The BHIM app currently supports 13 languages (including English), though there are 22 official languages of India (excluding English) under 8th Schedule of Constitution of India. In near future, BHIM App is expected to support all 22 official languages of India along with other regional languages which are spoken widely next to the scheduled languages.


    Relevant read: Instamojo – Aiding the Indian MSME’s with effortless payment gateways!


    Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)

    Immediate Payment Service
    Immediate Payment Service

    Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is an instant payment inter-bank electronic funds transfer system in India. IMPS offers an inter-bank electronic fund transfer service through mobile phones. Unlike NEFT and RTGS, the service is available 24/7 throughout the year including bank holidays.

    In 2010, the NPCI initially carried out a pilot for the mobile payment system with 4 member banks (State Bank of India, Bank of India, Union Bank of India and ICICI Bank), and expanded it to include Yes Bank, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank later that year. IMPS was publicly launched on November 22, 2010. Currently, 53 commercial banks, 101 Rural/District/Urban and cooperative banks, and 24 PPIi have signed up for the IMPS service.

    The participants of IMPS include the remitter (sender), beneficiary (receiver), banks, and National Financial Switch – NPCI.

    You can avail the fund transfer service:

    • Using Mobile number & MMID (P2P).
    • Using Account number & IFS Code (P2A).
    • Using Aadhaar number (IMPS).

    National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC)

    National Electronic Toll Collection
    National Electronic Toll Collection

    The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has developed the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program to meet the electronic tolling requirements of the Indian market. It offers an interoperable nationwide toll payment solution including clearing house services for settlement and dispute management.

    Interoperability, as it applies to National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) system, encompasses a common set of processes, business rules, and technical specifications which enable a customer to use FASTag as a payment mode on any of the toll plazas irrespective of who has acquired the toll plaza.

    FASTag is a device that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly while the vehicle is in motion. FASTag (RFID Tag) is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle and enables a customer to make toll payments directly from the account which is linked to FASTag.

    FASTag offers the convenience of cashless payment along with benefits like savings on fuel and time as the customer does not have to stop at the toll plaza. The program is currently live on 415+ toll plazas across the country. As per NHAI, FASTag has unlimited validity. 7.5% cashback offers were also provided to promote the use of FASTag. Dedicated Lanes at some toll plazas have been built for FASTag.

    *99#

    *99#
    *99#

    *99# service has been launched to take the banking services to every common man across the country. Banking customers can avail this service by dialing *99#, a “Common number across all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)” on their mobile phones and transact through an interactive menu displayed on the mobile screen. Key services offered under *99# service include sending and receiving inter-bank account to account funds, balance enquiry, and setting/changing UPI PIN besides other services.

    *99# service is currently offered by 41 leading banks and all GSM service providers. It can be accessed in 13 different languages including Hindi and English. *99# is a unique interoperable direct to consumer service that brings together diverse ecosystem partners such as Banks and TSPs (Telecom Service Providers).

    It is a common technology platform developed by NPCI which allows banks and TSPs to seamlessly integrate with each other and provide banking services to customers at large over mobile phones (basic as well as smartphone).

    Features of *99# service include:

    • Use of USSD as the access channel that works across all GSM handsets (smartphone or otherwise), making it reach the last mile user.
    • Supports menu-based applications that are easy to maneuver for the users.
    • Does not require data connectivity (works on signaling channel) and this makes it a high availability service.
    • Round the clock availability (works even on holidays).
    • Accessible through a common code (*99#) across all GSM operators and mobile handsets.
    • Additional channel for using BHIM app and a key catalyst for financial inclusion.

    Must read: Everything You Need to Know About Unified Payments Interface


    Bharat Bill Pay

    Bharat Bill Pay
    Bharat Bill Pay

    The Bharat bill payment system is a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conceptualised system driven by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It is a one-stop ecosystem for payment of all kinds of bills, thus providing an interoperable and accessible “Anytime Anywhere” bill payment service to Indian customers with certainty, reliability and safety of transactions.

    Bharat Bill Pay has multiple modes of payment and provides instant confirmation of payment via an SMS or receipt. It offers myriad bill collection categories like electricity, telecom, DTH, gas, water bills etc. through a single window. In future, biller categories may be expanded to include insurance premium, mutual funds, school fees, institution fees, credit cards, local taxes, invoice payments, etc. An effective mechanism for handling consumer complaints has also been put in place to support consumers regarding any bill related problems in Bharat Bill Pay.

    BHIM Aadhaar

    BHIM Aadhar
    BHIM Aadhaar

    BHIM Aadhaar pay is an Aadhaar based payments interface which allows real time payments to merchants using the customer’s Aadhaar number and authenticating him or her through biometrics. BHIM Aadhaar Pay Merchant Incentive Scheme was effective from 1st April, 2017. The end date of BHIM Aadhaar Pay Merchant Incentive Scheme was 31st March, 2019.

    Merchants can initiate transactions where customers pay money using their Aadhaar number and authenticate the transaction using their biometrics for the goods and services purchased. To be able to effect the same, the merchant should have an Android mobile with the BHIM Aadhaar app installed and a certified biometric scanner attached with the mobile phone/kiosk/tablet through a USB Port or with Micro-ATM/POS, mPOS. The customer and merchant should have their Aadhaar number linked to their bank accounts.

    Merchant can view the transaction for its status, whether it was a successful transaction, pending transaction, or a failed transaction. Customers can pay using their Aadhaar number and biometrics at merchant locations where BHIM Aadhaar Pay is accepted.

    The merchant enters the customer details and amount in his or her BHIM Aadhaar Pay App and the customer provides his biometrics on the Merchant App after selecting the bank.

    Limit on Value of Transaction: The per transaction limit is Rs. 10,000 (as the maximum incentive is capped at Rs. 50 at 0.5% of the transaction value)  The maximum incentive which can be earned by the merchant in a month is Rs.2000. The BHIM Aadhaar Pay enabled merchant will receive the incentive between one to seven days after the date of transactions (the merchant should check with their banks for further details).