Now Transfer Money through Your Mobile 

NPCI unveils country's first mobile payment service

BANK customers can now undertake instantaneous money transfers through their cellphone with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launching the country’s first instant interbank mobile payment service (IMPS).

“The service provides an inter-operable infrastructure for banks to offer real time money transfer facility to their customers through the mobile phone in seven seconds,” said AP Hota, CEO and managing director of NPCI, while inaugurating the system in Mumbai.

Though mobile fund transfers were being offered by banks and technology providers, it used to take about 24 hours for the transaction to be completed.

To use the IMPS service, customers have to register their mobile number with the banks where they hold an account. When the customer registers, he will be assigned a three digit code that will be their mobile money identity (MMID) and each bank will be assigned a four digit national bank identification number (NBIN).

Both the sender and the receiver needs to get their NBIN and MMID in order to facilitate the transaction.

The funds transfer can take place in seven seconds by using the MMID and NBIN numbers of both the banks.

“RBI has been pushing for reducing the use of cash and switching to plastic cards and mobile wallets.

There were two models that were discussed. One was non-bank-led and other the bank-led model. We prefer the bank-led model as this model can extend a whole gamut of financial services.

The mobile payment channel’s importance has been recognised by the RBI,” said Shyamala Gopinath, deputy governor of RBI, while inaugurating the service.

Seven banks – State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Union Bank of India, Yes Bank, Bank of India and
Axis Bank – are already offering the service. Seven more banks are in the process of linking up through this network. Gradually, all the 50 banks licensed by RBI will offer this service.

SK Chakrabarti, deputy managing director, Axis Bank, said, “We have been working closely with the NPCI to create the system that enables instant interbank fund transfer using the mobile number of the recipient. With the growth of mobile users, we are optimistic that this service would revolutionise real time payments in the future and we are glad of being one of the initial participants to the system.” 

Financial Chronicle, New Delhi, 23-11-2010