In a new service that is set to revolutionize the retail money payment sector in India, consumers will now be able to transfer money from their accounts to any other account in the country using their cellphones via the National Payment Corporation of India's (NPCI) Inter-bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS).
The NPCI is the umbrella organization for all retail payment systems in the country owned and operated by banks. The system is as secure as the net-banking facility. The major advantage of IMPS is that a customer does not have to use a computer or an internet-enabled phone to transfer funds.
Till now, the transfer of money through mobile phones was only allowed if both the sender and the receiver held accounts with the same bank. NPCI managing director and chief executive officer A P Hota said, ''It is India's first instant, real-time, 24x7 fund transfer facility in the retail payment sector.''
As of now, seven banks including HDFC , ICICI, AXIS and SBI have gone live with the system. Seven more banks are in the process of activating the service and 22 others are expected to join the network soon. Explaining how the system works, Hota said, ''Both the receiver and sender of the money should have mobile numbers and hold accounts with their banks. They will both have to register with their bank(s) to secure a seven-digit mobile money transfer identifier number (MMID). With the help of these two numbers, the payer will be able to transfer the amount in the payee's account in real time.
Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI) executive secretary V N Sastry said, ''The mobile phone user will have to download the mobile banking application on his instrument to remit money. Even low-end phones will be able to undertake this transfer either through download, bluetooth or even by making a simple application at the nearest branch of the bank.''
Hota said, ''As soon as the transaction is complete, the payer and payee soon receive SMS confirmations on their mobile phones. The technology is simple and it can be used to even pay your taxi fare.'' The facility was inaugurated by Shyamala Gopinath, deputy governor, RBI.
According to Reserve Bank of India guidelines, using this service, a consumer is allowed to carry out a transaction of not more than Rs 50,000 per day. India is the world's fastest-growing mobile market and adds 15 to 20 million new cellular users every month. The country, with a population of over 1.2 billion, already has over 600 million mobile connections.
''Nowhere in the world is a facility of this magnitude present. India has nearly 300 million bank accounts, with a huge number of banks as well as cellular operators and a wide subscriber base. It is a challenging task, but the technology is equipped to deal with such a wide subscriber base,'' said an official.
+1.jpg)
0 comments
Post a Comment