SBI adopts Shirki village for Aadhaar-based payments

Mumbai: Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today said it has adopted Shirki village in Pen taluka in Maharashtra for driving the Aadhaar-based merchant payment.

Under this initiative, the merchants in this village have been provided with simple android phones with a USB-based fingerprint capture device, SBI said in a statement here today.

The only precondition is that the merchant needs to have a bank account, with an Aadhaar number seeded. The merchant downloads the Aadhaar Pay App and registers with his/her bank using the mobile App.

The consumer only need to have a bank account with their Aadhaar number seeded and they are not expected to have a mobile phone. The consumer pays the merchant by selecting the bank name in the App where he/she has an account and providing the fingerprint in the biometric device attached to the mobile phone.

This unique payment mode will enable the lower end of the pyramid in quickly adopting digital payments, which will give a tremendous push to the government's drive towards cashless economy, the bank said.