The National Payments Corporation of India is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of 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 was created by RBI for operating retail payments and settlement systems in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Organisation

Founded in December 2008, the NPCI is a not-for-profit organisation registered under Section 8 of the

Companies Act 2013 The Companies Act 2013 is an Act of the Parliament of India on Indian company law which regulates incorporation of a company, responsibilities of a company, directors, dissolution of a company. The 2013 Act is divided into 29 chapters containin ...

, established by the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

and

Indian Banks' Association Indian Banks' Association (IBA), formed on (26 September 1946) as a representative body of management of banking in India operating in India - an association of Indian banks and financial institutions based in Mumbai. With an initial membership re ...

. The organisation is owned by a consortium of major banks, and has been promoted by the country's central bank, the

. The NPCI was incorporated in December 2008 and the Certificate of Commencement of Business was issued in April 2009. The authorised capital has been pegged at and paid-up capital is . Initially, there were ten promoter banks viz. State Bank of India,

Punjab National Bank Punjab National Bank (abbreviated as PNB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Delhi. The bank was founded in May 1894 and is the second largest government-owned bank in India, both in terms of its business volumes and its network ...

, Canara Bank,

Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, ...

Union Bank of India Union Bank of India, commonly referred to as Union Bank or UBI, is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Mumbai. It has 120+ million customers and a total business of US$106 billion. After the amalgamation with Corporation Bank and A ...

Bank of India Bank of India (BOI) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Founded in 1906, it has been government-owned since nationalisation in 1969. BoI is a founder member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter ...

ICICI Bank ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian Private bank. It is headquartered at Mumbai. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized subsidiari ...

HDFC Bank HDFC Bank Limited (also known as HDB) is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's largest private sector bank by assets and world's 10th largest bank by market capitalisation . It is the third lar ...

, Citibank and HSBC. In 2016, the shareholding was diluted to include 13 additional public sector banks, 15 additional private sector banks, 1 additional foreign bank, 10 multi-state co-operative banks and 7 regional rural banks. The Board consists of Biswamohan Mahapatra as the Non Executive Chairman, Nominees from the

and Nominees from ten core promoter banks. Dilip Asbe is the current managing director and chief executive officer of the NPCI after A. P. Hota, who retired from the post on 10 August 2017.

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL)

NPCI has created a separate subsidiary to take its product to global market. The organization is getting offers from nations around

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

to improve their payment infrastructure. Internationalization of

RuPay RuPay ''(portmanteau of Rupee and Payment)'' is an Indian multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on 26 March 2012. It was created to fulfil th ...

and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are the primary focus of the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL). In 2021, Malaysian company

Merchantrade Asia Merchantrade Asia (Merchantrade) is a Money Services Business (MSB), Digital Payment Service (Issuing and Acquiring) and Mobile Virtual Network operator (MVNO) provider, based in Malaysia. The company’s core business is centered on international ...

partnered with NIPL to send remittance in India through UPI infrastructure.

NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL)

From April 2021, NPCI created a new subsidiary for

Bharat Bill Payment System Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment system in India offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents of registered member as Agent Institutions (AI), enabling multipl ...

(BBPS) to increase growth especially in business to consumer segment for small businesses. This is done in view of growing traffic and workload from UPI, IMPS, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System and National Electronic Toll Collections. NBBL is a public company registered in December 2020.

Services

The corporation's current and future service portfolio includes:

Aadhaar Enabled Payment System

A network of Micro ATMs using

Aadhaar Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...

authentication. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced the transactions of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) for the month of July 2019 have crossed the milestone number of 200 million. AePS is a bank-led model which allows basic interoperable banking transactions at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank by using Aadhaar authentication.

Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)

The Bharat Bill Payment System is a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conceptualised system driven by the NPCI. It is a one-stop ecosystem for payment of all bills, providing an interoperable and accessible "Anytime Anywhere" bill payment service to all customers across India with certainty, reliability and safety. Bharat BillPay 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. More categories may be added in the future, 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. Bharat BillPay transactions can be initiated through multiple payment channels like Internet, Internet Banking, Mobile, Mobile-Banking, POS (Point of Sale terminal), Mobile Wallets, MPOS (Mobile Point of Sale terminal), Kiosk, ATM, Bank Branch, Agents and Business Correspondents. Bharat BillPay supports multiple payment modes. This includes Cards (Credit, Debit and Prepaid),

NEFT National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) is an electronic funds transfer system maintained by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Started in November 2005, the setup was established and maintained by Institute for Development and Research in Bankin ...

Internet Banking, UPI, Wallets,

based Payments and Cash.

BharatQR

A common QR code developed by NPCI in collaboration with

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

, Mastercard and

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

for ease of payments and interoperability.

BHIM

BHIM BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is an Indian mobile payment mobile app, app developed by the National Payments Corporation of India, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payments Interface, Unified Payments Int ...

is a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

to act as

Client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...

software for the

Unified Payments Interface Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used ...

BHIM Aadhaar Pay

BHIM Aadhaar pay is an

based payments interface which allows real time payments to Merchants using Aadhaar number of Customer & authenticating them through their biometrics.

Cheque Truncation System (CTS)

CTS is based on a

cheque truncation Cheque truncation (check truncation in American English) is a cheque clearance system that involves the digitization of a physical paper cheque into a substitute electronic form for transmission to the paying bank. The process of cheque cleara ...

or online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and

magnetic ink character recognition Magnetic ink character recognition code, known in short as MICR code, is a character recognition technology used mainly by the banking industry to streamline the processing and clearance of cheques and other documents. MICR encoding, called the ' ...

(MICR) data are captured at the collecting bank branch and transmitted electronically.

Digital Rupee

The Digital Rupee (e₹) or eINR or E-Rupee is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Digital Rupee was proposed in January 2017 and will be launched in the 2022-23 financial year. The plan is to incorporate distributed ledger into Digital Rupee. Like banknotes it will be uniquely identifiable and regulated by Central Bank. Liability lies with RBI. Plans include online and offline accessibility. RBI will launch Digital Rupee for Wholesale (e₹-W) catering to financial institutions for interbank settlements and Digital Rupee for Retail (e₹-R) for consumer and business transactions. CBDC will remove ₹4,984.80 crore security printing cost borne by the general public, businesses, banks, and RBI on physical currency.

Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)

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. The service is available 24x7 throughout the year in ...

is a real time inter bank payment system. *Mobile number & MMID: Send money to bank accounts mapped using mobile number. *Account number & IFSC: Send money to bank accounts.

National Automated Clearing House

A centralised clearing service that aims at providing interbank high volume, low value transactions that are repetitive and periodic in nature.

National Common Mobility Card - Rupay Contactless

Rupay Contactless is a

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung ...

technology that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contactless payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device.

National Electronic Toll Collection

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 the toll payments directly from the account which is linked to FASTag. The latest version 2.0 can also be used to buy fuel. IDFC First Bank has become the first one to get an approval from the RBI. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has declared that all lanes at all toll plazas on national highways across the country will be dedicated Fastag lanes from 1, December 2019.

National Financial Switch

Network of shared

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

s in India.

RuPay

is a domestic

card scheme Card schemes are payment networks linked to payment cards, such as debit or credit cards, of which a bank or any other eligible financial institution can become a member. By becoming a member of the scheme, the member then gets the possibility to ...

of India. The card has

Magnetic stripe The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...

(for

Backward compatibility Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especiall ...

) and an

EMV EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for " Europay, Mastercard, and Visa", the three companies that created th ...

chip. The RuPay card is now accepted at all ATMs,

Point-of-Sale terminal A payment terminal, also known as a point of sale (POS) terminal, credit card terminal, EFTPOS terminal (or by the older term as PDQ terminal which stands for "Process Data Quickly"), is a device which interfaces with payment cards to make electro ...

s and most online merchants in the country. More than 300 cooperative banks and

Regional Rural Bank Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) are government owned scheduled commercial banks of India that operate at regional level in different states of India. These banks are under the ownership of Ministry of Finance , Government of India. They were creat ...

s (RRBs) in the country have also issued RuPay ATM cards.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

is a real-time interbank payment system for sending or receiving money. It is integrated with more than 358 banks in India. Consumers can participate in P2P transfer as long as they both have an account in one of the registered banks. To initiate fund transfer, users have to use any UPI supporting Android or iOS app, link their bank accounts and generate BHIM UPI PIN. Funds can be transferred via the following methods: *Virtual Payment Address (VPA): Send or request money from/to bank account mapped using VPA. *Account number & IFSC: Send money to bank account. *QR code: Send money by scanning QR code with enclosed VPA or Account number & IFSC. *Mobile number: Send or request money from/to the bank account mapped using mobile number. *Aadhaar: Send money to the bank account mapped using Aadhaar number. Once the fund transfer is initiated, money is debited from payer's bank account and deposited in the recipient's bank account in real-time. This system works 24x7, including weekends and bank holidays.

*99# USSD

USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as "quick codes" or "feature codes", is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator's computers. USSD can be used ...

channel service for UPI mobile banking launched in November 2012. Only public sector telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited MTNL are offering this service. It uses quick codes for transactions and doesn't require smartphone and access to internet. The interface is developed by National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) to overcome the problem of poor internet connectivity in rural areas with 12 regional languages. This service is being currently offered by 51 banks.

app also supports USSD features. Understanding the importance of mobile banking in financial inclusion in general and of *99# in particular, various regulatory/trade bodies came together to ensure on boarding of all TSPs on *99# (USSD 1.0). With the wider ecosystem (11 TSPs), *99# was launched by Prime minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

on 28 August 2014, as part of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna.

UPI Pay123

It a 3-step method to initiate and execute UPI services for feature phone users without the use of

internet connection Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

channel. It is based on Interactive voice response (IVR) technology which is good specially for rural areas. It is launched by RBI on 10 March 202

Recent awards and recognition

* The NPCI was awarded Golden Peacock Innovative Product/Service Award for the year 2018 for Unified Payments Interface, BHIM UPI. * The NPCI won Policy Change Agent of the Year 2018 by Economics Times.

References

External links

Official site
{{Financial services in India 2008 establishments in Maharashtra Financial services companies established in 2008 Payment systems organizations Interbank networks in India Non-profit organisations based in India Banking in India Financial services companies based in Mumbai Financial services companies of India