Payment Systems

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday asked banks to review their payment systems to ensure easier accessibility to persons with disabilities. All sections of the population, including differently-abled persons, are increasingly adopting digital payment systems, it said in a circular. "To promote effective access, payment system participants (PSPs, that is, banks and authorised non-bank payment system providers) are advised to review their payment systems/devices in terms of accessibility to Persons with Disabilities," it noted. Based on the review, banks and non-bank payment system providers may carry out the necessary modifications in payment systems and devices like point-of-sale machines, which can be accessed and used by persons with disabilities with ease, the RBI said. The RBI also asked them to refer to the accessibility standards issued by the Ministry of Finance in February. While selecting potential solutions for the purpose, care should be taken to ensure that the ...

Fintech platform BharatPe on Wednesday announced the launch of its UPI TPAP (third-party application provider) to facilitate consumer digital payments. Earlier, BharatPe provided merchant-to-merchant digital payment services. The company has also rebranded buy-now-pay-later app postpe' to BharatPe', according to a statement. With this, there are now two apps available in the public domain: BharatPe (earlier postpe), and BharatPe for Business. The fintech platform said it has partnered with Unity Bank to enable TPAP. Customers can create their UPI ID on the BharatPe app with the extension @bpunity, and make both individual and merchant transactions. "With our UPI TPAP, we aim to enable millions across Bharat to make seamless and secure UPI transactions, for their individual as well as business needs. "The foray into the consumer payments category will help us to further propel adoption of digital payments and drive financial inclusion across the country," BharatPe CEO Nalin Negi

Says frictionless cross-border payments will make it difficult to check money laundering and terror funding

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Tuesday said the government and RBI have been taking various initiatives for expanding the global reach of UPI, which is currently available in seven nations. RBI's Payments Vision Document 2025 has also outlined expanding the global outreach of UPI and RuPay cards as one of the key objectives under the internationalisation pillar, he said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. "The government along with RBI has been taking various initiatives from time to time for expanding the global outreach of UPI. RBI has been collaborating with various relevant stakeholders (central banks of various countries, Bank of International Settlements, World Bank and other institutions) for expanding the outreach of UPI," he said. With these concerted efforts, he said, UPI is live in seven countries--Bhutan, Singapore, the UAE, France, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Replying to another question, Chaudhary said, the government, Reserve Bank of India .

The RBI on Tuesday said non-bank payment system operators will have to put in place a real-time fraud monitoring solution to identify suspicious transactional behaviour and generate alerts. Also, non-bank payment system operators (PSOs) will have to ensure that an online session on mobile application is automatically terminated after a fixed period of inactivity and customers are prompted to re-login, according to Master Directions on Cyber Resilience and Digital Payment Security Controls for non-bank PSOs. The directions have come into effect from Tuesday, but the Reserve Bank has also prescribed a phased implementation to provide adequate time to PSOs to put in place the necessary compliance structure. RBI said the directions aim to improve safety and security of the payment systems operated by PSOs by providing a framework for overall information security preparedness with an emphasis on cyber resilience. Regarding mobile payments, RBI said PSOs should ensure that an authenticat

All taxi drivers in Sikkim have been directed to compulsorily provide QR codes as an additional payment option to the passengers by July 15, a senior official said on Wednesday. The decision was taken in view of several complaints from the public over providing accurate fares to drivers due to the non-availability change either with the driver or the passenger, resulting in arguments and traffic jams, he said. "All drivers are to compulsorily provide the QR code by July 15, 2024, (as an additional payment option) and affix one on the front windscreen of the vehicle facing the passenger and another at the rear seat of the vehicle," the Transport Commissioner-cum-Secretary Raj Yadav said in a circular. The mandatory display of the QR code on the front and rear side of the taxis was ordered to address this issue of haggling between the taxi drivers and commuters on payment issues, Yadav said, adding that a meeting was held recently with the stakeholders/local taxi associations, where i

"We expect the launch of this interoperable payment system for internet banking during the current calendar year.", Guv said.

Number of participants on BBPS to go up with participation of PAs

Madhya Pradesh's e-Nagarpalika portal, which is the online civic tax payment software covering 413 towns and cities in the state, has suffered a cyber attack, leading to corruption of data, a senior official said on Saturday. Offline data, of which back-up is created on tapes every three days, is safe, he added. The portal oversees the mechanism by which citizens of these civic bodies get online services like birth and death as well as marriage certificates, payment of property, water and sanitation taxes, among others. "Following the attack, the e-Nagarpalika portal has been shut till Tuesday. Civic bodies have been told to work offline till the restoration of the system," said Neeraj Mandloi, the Principal Secretary of the state's Urban Administration and Housing Department. "The cyber attackers have corrupted the entire data of all 413 cities, but offline data, of which backup is taken on tapes every 3 days, is safe," Mandloi informed. Information Technology experts have not fo

There is a lot of work to be done. Consolidating the labels in a single repository doesn't always solve the problem of multiple contractual relationships, each of which comes with its own accounting

India's CBDC is currently in a pilot phase across the retail and wholesale segments. The central bank has set a target of one million transactions a day by the end of 2023

Chakravorty, a post graduate in Applied Chemistry, started his banking career as a Probationary Officer with SBI in 1988

The dynamics of in-store payments are fast changing, and this will impact retailing in a big way

The system will ensure zero processing downtime during catastrophes such as natural disasters and war

Reserve Bank of India is working on a light weight and portable payment system, a "bunker equivalent in payment systems", that can be used for critical transactions during catastrophic events like natural calamities and war. The proposed Light weight and Portable Payment System (LPSS) will be independent of conventional technologies and can be operated from anywhere by a bare minimum staff, according to the central bank. Existing conventional payment systems like RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) and UPI (Unified Payments Interface) are designed to handle large volumes while ensuring sustained availability. These systems are dependent on complex wired networks backed by advanced IT infrastructure. However, catastrophic events like natural calamities and war have the potential to render these payment systems temporarily unavailable by disrupting the underlying information and communication infrastructure, RBI said in its latest annual report

Riding on digital payments, the point-of-sale transaction value share conducted in cash is expected to fall from $11.6 trn in 2021 to $6.0 trn globally by 2026, a decline of nearly 50%, report showed

Airtel Payments Bank on Tuesday said it has collaborated with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to roll out face authentication for the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System at its 5 lakh banking points. Airtel Payments Bank is among the first four banks to offer face authentication for AePS (Aadhaar-enabled Payment System). "We are delighted to collaborate with NPCI to offer this new facility to our valuable customers. Face authentication is an important addition to our existing bouquet of secure and simple banking solutions to drive financial and digital inclusion in the country," Airtel Payments Bank COO Ganesh Ananthanarayanan said in a statement. NPCI's AePS allows customers to carry out financial and non-financial transactions at any banking point using their Aadhaar number or virtual ID to access their Aadhaar-linked bank account. Until now, transactions were being authenticated using the customer's Aadhaar number and fingerprint or Iris match in the UIDAI records.

While cost of funds and credit costs are seen rising, growth in business is estimated to be good

Chennai has emerged as one of the top digital payment transactions cities in 2022 in the country, a report by payment services firm Worldline India said on Tuesday. The capital city in terms of volume has made 14.3 million transactions with a value of USD 35.5 billion, Worldline India said in its report. Bengaluru emerged on top with 29 million transactions worth USD 65 billion followed by New Delhi 19.6 million transactions worth USD 50 billion, Mumbai (18.7 million transactions worth USD 49.5 billion), Pune (15 million transactions valued at USD 32.8 billion), the report said. "I am amazed every day to see the incredible progress we have made in the digital payments ecosystem over the past few years. The adoption of multiple payment solutions is a boon in our journey to realise the dream of a less-cash India," Worldline India CEO Ramesh Narasimhan said. "In 2023 and beyond, Worldline will continue to collaborate with our merchants, partner banks, fintechs, e-commerce players and

Speaking about India's central bank digital currency (CBDC, also known as e-rupee), Sankar said the RBI was looking to expand the use cases for wholesale CBDC