National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI, Hindi: भारतीय राष्ट्रीय भुगतान निगम) is the umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in India,which aims to allow all Indian citizens to have unrestricted access to e-payment services.
Why was NPCI set up?
Before NPCI, there were many systems providing different services at different levels. So NPCI was proposed so as to consolidate and integrate all these systems and provide a uniform and standard business process for all retail payment systems in the country. NPCI was incorporated in December 2008 and the Certificate of Commencement of Business was issued in April 2009. It is registered under Companies Act 1956.
NPCI has ten promoter banks namely, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and HSBC.
RuPay PaySecure :-
Over 20 banks now offer this authentication mechanism to their RuPay cardholders.The new transaction flow of Card + OTP has infused more simplicity to cardholders. More than 70,000 merchants accept Rupay cards online. RuPay PaySecure is live on 10 acquiring banks which includes Union Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Citi Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India.
Services provided by NPCI:-
- RuPay - card scheme
- Electronic Benefit Transfer
- *99# - Mobile banking using USSD
- *99*99# - Aadhar linked subsidy information
- National Automated Clearing House (NACH)
- Aadhaar Payments Bridge System (APBS)
- BharatQR - A common QR code built for ease of payments
- Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) - Integrated bill payment system
- Cheque Truncation System - Online image-based cheque clearing system
- Immediate Payments Service (IMPS): The service is provided 24 x 7 x 365.
- RuPay Card: It is a domestic card payment network to provide an alternative to international card schemes. As on end-October 2015 over 220 Million Indians own RuPay cards.
- Unified Payments System: The service was launched on 11 April 2016. It is aimed at providing a single id to transfer the funds anywhere (reducing the use of IFSC codes).
- National Financial Switch (NFS) ATM Network: It connects 1,98,953 ATMs of 449 banks (91 Member Banks, 358 Sub- Member). The service came into effect from October 15, 2009
- Unified Payment Interface (UPI) - Single mobile application for accessing different bank accounts
- BHIM App - Smartphone app built using UPI interface. ( Updated version of BHIM is named as BHIM )
- Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) - Real time payment with mobile number.