Chennai: India's real-time money transfer platform IMPS has been rated the best global payments innovation by US-based research firm Fidelity National Information Services (FIS ).
According to FIS, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) launched in 2010 arguably has the most evolved and sophisticated public digital payments infrastructure in the world. It is one of the fastest-growing immediate payment services in the world, rising from 2 million transactions per day in 2017 to 2.8m this year.
The growth is partly attributed to the fact that the second most populous country in the world has embraced the smartphone as a payment vehicle, but primarily driven by the additional overlay services offered on top of the faster payments rails, FIS found. These overlay services are offered through the Unifed Payments Interface, an overlay on IMPS giving an API interface to application developers enabling the initiation and collection of payments.
UPI-based services have led to the creation of a wealth of new innovative payment solutions, and t-he adoption rates of instant payments in India reflect that evolution. In fact, the numbers of tran-sactions originating thro-ugh these apps have adve-rsely impacted traditional debit and credit card numbers.
IMPS is a service that allows bank customers to use a mobile device, the internet and other channels to make immediate payments. An IFSC Code + Account Number (P2A), MMID + mobile number (P2P) or Aadhaar number (P2U) (government issued identity number) connects bank accounts and completes payments. IMPS is based on ISO 8583 standards and operates 24/7; almost every major Indian bank is the part of IMPS.
Money is credited and debited within seconds, and confirmed by SMS. Overlay services that can be built on the IMPS faster payment rails will move toward the cashless goal.
Meanwhile, Paytm claimed that it is the leading contributor to UPI Payments contributing to over 33 per cent of the overall transactions. The company is enabling & promoting BHIM UPI for offline payments and over 5 million offline merchants out of its 9.5 million merchant-base now accept Paytm UPI.
“Paytm has built an ecosystem where users can make payments for various services such as mobile recharges, electricity and water bills, metro commute and also at the offline stores. It is encouraging to see the widespread adoption of Paytm BHIM UPI ,” said Deepak Abbot, senior vice-president, Paytm.
