siliconindia | | November 20168IN MY OPINIONHeadquartered in Mumbai, NPCI serves as the core organization for all retail payment systems in India with the support and guidance from the RBI and IBA. or building a `Less Cash' economy, awareness of the customer is as much important as infrastructure readiness. While infrastructure development has moved substantially during the past few years, efforts on building awareness on the part of the consumer has not been adequate. Data indicates that number of banks with internet banking, mobile banking and card payment facility has almost doubled during past five years. Such a doubling of infrastructure should lead to increase in volume of transactions by multiple times. But the same has not happened. This is primarily due to lack of awareness on the part of the customers and also inadequate efforts on the part of the banks to allay the fears of the customers transacting electronically. In the area of mobile payment system, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) has been launched in the country which is a next generation money transfer system operating 24x7 on a real time basis. To cater to the needs of the segment which does not have smartphones, a USSD based IMPS has been created under the common service code *99#. Considering that, the country has over 900 million+ mobile phones and 700 million+ active bank accounts. Ideally, all bank customers can have access to mobile banking if they link their mobile number to their bank account. This optimism is strengthened by the fact that almost all the banks including small cooperative banks are under Core Banking Solution (CBS) which is a necessary condition for 24x7 mobile banking services. USSD based mobile banking service is also available in local language. Thus, there is no challenge in banking infrastructure. But the data available indicates that only about 200 million customers have linked their mobile number with their banks. Possibly, the customers are unable to see the benefits of linking the mobile number. The regulatory mandate that every credit or debit transaction to the bank account need to be alerted to the customer on the mobile FAWARENESS IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR FOR A `LESS CASH' ECONOMYBy A P Hota, CEO & MD, NPCI
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