National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation for retail payments in India, has awarded the contract to develop a Digital Payments Enablement Platform to RS Software.
RS Software is a key provider of outsourcing services to payment processing companies, and counts Visa as its biggest customer.
The platform is meant to facilitate & accelerate adoption of digital payments in India to support the growth of digital-commerce while facilitating financial inclusion in India, said RS Software.
NPCI is tasked with building a Unified Payment Interface (UPI) that will be used by banks to launch mobile payment products in India in line with RBI’s Payment System Vision (2012-15) of a cashless society.
Unified Payment Interface will offer a simple and secured platform for digital transaction through its Application Program Interface (APIs) and harness the power of the existing payment infrastructure like Aadhar.
Once the infrastructure is in place, it would allow users to send and receive money electronically without requiring bank account information.
All they would need is a single identifier, such as their Aadhaar number or Short Payment Address or mobile number. The platform will have security layers built into it to prevent misuse and ensure that money goes to the intended recipient.
It will be based on a 2-factor authentication method that will allow banks and other institutions to tap into the ever-growing online customer base and ensure financial inclusion through secure micro-payments.
At present, mobile payments are extremely cumbersome in India due to the maze of regulations that govern them. Mobile payments are subject to various regulations that require app developers to tie-up with banks and interface with them, instead of offering payments on their own.
The new interface “will foster a new wave of disruptive innovation in digital payment space that will enable financial inclusion of common people in a digital India,” said RS Software.
The value of the contract was not revealed, nor was it clear how much of the Unified Payment Interface is accounted for by the digital payment platform contract given to RS Software.
“The new interface would also be a blessing for small-scale banks that do not have the necessary infrastructure to set up their own digital banking products,” RS Soft said.
The solution will facilitate payments functions as secured APIs over the internet, enabling PSPs (payment service providers) such as banks to develop digital payment platforms via mobile applications for initiating payments.
The UPI layer that will sit on top of the existing infrastructure of banks, will enable money to be transferred from one bank to another using mobile phones.
“We intent to utilize RS Software’s expertise for fulfilling advanced needs of the customers to perform instant payment transactions. Our strategic association with RS Software foresee a significant contribution to digital revolution we aim to achieve in payments arena.” said Mr. A P Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI.
“NPCI’s decision to award the contract to RS Software for this development is based on our assessment on RS Software’s capabilities which will help us to offer next generation peer-to-peer payment services in near future”, he added.
The deal can be seen as a key win for RS Soft, which has been trying to diversify its client base, which is currently dominated by Visa.
Commenting on the occasion, Raj Jain, Chairman & Managing Director, RS Software (India) Ltd said, “This is the vehicle that will bring together Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (comprehensive financial inclusion), Aadhaar (National identity card), and Mobile (India’s 900+ million mobile phone infrastructure) and deliver perhaps the most transformative initiative India has ever taken.
“It is the enabler for a seamless payment experience in an economy that is being strengthened by new policies and initiatives, and is of critical importance to the future of electronic payments in India.