National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) Ltd. launched its new Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system on Monday.
A P Hota, Managing Director & CEO of NPCI told Tech2: “Today a few banks have gone live with UPI, out of 29 banks that had concurred to provide UPI service to their customers. We are confident that several banks will join UPI this year and the number will multiply further. Our focus is in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s vision of migrating towards a ‘less-cash’ and more digital society. NPCI has always been at the forefront to innovate and introduce new products and services at par with global standards.”
By implementing this system, India is planning to copy the success of a similar digital payment scheme in Kenya. Introduced in 2007, Safaricom’s M-PESA system allows Kenyans to send and receive money via mobile phones.