The UPI, the BHIM app, Rupay and NCPI

Why is in news? Singapore and United Arab Emirates have expressed interest in Rupay: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India is talking to different countries to adopt Rupay payment system.

Ms. Sitaraman said that the UPI, the BHIM app, and NCPI (the National Payments Corporation of India) are all now being developed to synchronize with the systems in other countries.

The Finance Minister is on a visit to the United States for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI):

It is an advanced version of Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) - round–the-clock funds transfer service to make cashless payments faster, easier and smoother.

UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.

UPI is currently the biggest among the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operated systems including National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), RuPay etc.

The top UPI apps today include PhonePe, Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and BHIM, the latter being the Government offering.

NPCI launched UPI with 21 member banks in 2016.

Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI):

BHIM is developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

It is an initiative to enable fast, secure, reliable cashless payments through the mobile phone.

BHIM is based on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to facilitate e-payments directly through banks.

It is interoperable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications, and bank accounts.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI):

NPCI - an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.

It 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.

It is a “Not for Profit” Company under the provisions of Section 25 of Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013), with an intention to provide infrastructure to the entire Banking system in India for physical as well as electronic payment and settlement systems.

RuPay Card Scheme:

RuPay is the first-of-its-kind domestic Debit and Credit Card payment network of India, launched by the National Payments Council Of India (NPCI).

The name, derived from the words ‘Rupee and ‘Payment’, emphasises that it is India’s very own initiative for Debit and Credit Card payments.

It is launched to fulfil RBI’s vision to offer a domestic, open-loop, multilateral system which will allow all Indian banks and financial institutions in India to participate in electronic payments.

RuPaY facilities electronic payments at all Indian banks and institutions and competes with Mastercard and Visa in India.

The card can also be used for transactions in Singapore, Bhutan, UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia