National Payments Corporation of India

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organization for all retail payments in India. It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India. It is a “Not for Profit” Company under the provisions of Section 25 of Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013).

Promoters of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

The ten core promoter banks are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank N. A. and HSBC. In 2016 the shareholding was broad-based to 56 member banks to include more banks representing all sectors.

Services and Products of NPCI

NPCI has launched many products to incorporate changing financial world. The products includes:

1. Rupay card payment: A card payment scheme launched by National Payments Corporation of India which offers a domestic, open loop, multilateral system to allow all Indian Banks and financial institutions in India to participate in electronic payments. RuPay’s innovative solutions in different segments is driving the country towards a less cash society
2. Rupay contactless card: NPCI developed RuPay Contactless specifications are open standards, interoperable and scalable and can be adopted by all card schemes.
3. Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app: BHIM is an app that lets you make simple, easy and quick payment transactions using Unified Payments Interface (UPI). You can make instant bank-to-bank payments and Pay and collect money using just Mobile number or Virtual Payment Address (UPI ID).
4. Unified Payments Interface (UPI): 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 & merchant payments under one hood. Unified Payments Interface as a proposition makes money transfers as easy as sending a text message in real-time.
5. Bharat Bill Payment System: The Bharat Bill Payment System is national integrated bill payment system conceptualised by Reserve Bank of India and being implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). BBPS will provide a one-stop interoperable and accessible bill payment platform to all customers across India for pay any bill “Anytime Anywhere” with utmost ease, certainty, reliability and safety of transactions
6. IMPS: IMPS is an innovative real time payment service that is available round the clock. This service empowers customers to transfer money instantly through banks and RBI authorized Prepaid Payment Instrument Issuers (PPI) across India to over 140 banks.
7. *99#, a USSD based mobile banking service
8. National Automated Clearing House (NACH): National Automated Clearing House (NACH) is a centralised system, launched with the aim to consolidate multiple ECS (Electronic Clearing System) running across the country. NACH System can be used for making bulk transactions toward distribution of subsidies, dividends, interest, salary, pension etc. and also for bulk transactions towards collection of payments pertaining to telephone, electricity, water, loans, inves ments in mutual funds, insurance premium etc
9. Cheque Truncation System (CTS): NPCI was entrusted with the responsibility of the implementation of CTS on a PAN India level by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Under this system, An electronic image of the cheque is transmitted to the drawee bank by the clearing house, along with relevant information like data on the MICR band, date of presentation, presenting bank, etc. Thus in CTS, the physical movement of cheques from banks to clearing houses are replaced by electronic images of the cheques & relevant data. Physical cheques are retained at the presenting bank itself. The images and data are transmitted over the secured network. The settlement of the CTS is based on the MICR data captured from the cheques.
10. National Financial Switch (NFS) ATM network: With an endeavour to connect the ATMs in the country and facilitating convenient banking for the common man, the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) conceptualized and operationalised a multilateral domestic ATM network which was referred to as National Financial Switch (NFS). It is the leading ATM network in the country with 101 direct member Banks and 708 sub-member Banks having a total network of 2.34 lakh ATMs as on February 28, 2017.
11. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS): AePS is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial inclusion transaction at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication.AePS allows you to do six types of transactions.
12. Bharat QR Code: it is is Person to Merchant (P2M) Mobile payment solution.
13. FASTag: The RFID tag, marketed as FASTag will offer non-stop movement of vehicles through ET lanes and convenience of cashless payments of toll fee with nationwide inter-operable network. Customers would also benefit with lower toll fares as Government has allowed NHAI to give cash back incentive for promoting electronic toll payments

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