National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation enabling digital payments and settlement systems in the country, is reportedly planning to introduce a new payment solution for feature phone users.
Currently, the solution is at the proof of concept (POC) stage, Financial Express reported quoting NPCI COO Praveena Rai.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataThe move is expected to enable the users, who are not comfortable with smartphones, to make digital payments, thereby, fuelling mobile banking in the country.
This comes a year after NPCI, CIIE.CO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation conducted a hackathon for the development of a feature phone-based payments solution.
Rai was quoted by the publication as saying: “We need to move into the market which is feature phone-based…Moving towards voice-enabled payments will be the trend of digital payments that we should see and India will be a clear innovator there.”
In 2016, NPCI launched a SMS-based payment system. However, the usage dropped following the roll out of the Bharat Interface for Payments (BHIM) app.
Currently, NPCI is also conducting another hackathon on payment authentication to improve online payment safety.
In January this year, NPCI’s RuPay partnered with private lender RBL Bank to launch RuPay POS solution for merchants.
The RuPay POS, launched in association with Indian hyperlocal fintech start-up PayNearby, turns smartphones into point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
