One of the latest products launched to run on the front end of mobile banking is UPI- unified payment interface. UPI can be thought of like an email ID for your money. The user can perform all sorts of money transactions without sharing any personal data like account number or IFSC code. The idea behind UPI is to get away from all the painful process of entering details on your phone, and even after that usually banks take upto 12 hours to add a new beneficiary.
So let’s see how does UPI really work now. The interface basically creates a single platform where users can make quick payments and money transfers on request and it does not consume much time either. Taxi aggregators like Uber and Ola, food ordering services like Zomato and Food Panda, online grocery shops like Big Basket will be able to take advantage of the UPI system. Going forward, such companies should be able to register its identifier on the UPI system and receive funds from a customer’s bank account through the UPI. Most of the similar tech companies are now banking on mobile wallets. This platform connects different branches of different banks and makes banking secure.
UPI will offer architecture and a set of standard APIs that will allow account holders across banks to send and receive money from their smartphones using just their Aadhaar unique identity number, mobile phone number or virtual payments address without necessarily entering bank account details. It is a layer that will allow interoperability by sitting atop the
existing infrastructure (like FinMobiconnect) of banks.
UPI offers many benefits to banks and at user level. It will facilitate the following to banks
- Universal App for Payments
- Security
- Payments basis Single/Unique Identifier
- Opportunity to tap Customer to Business (C2B) segment
- Opportunity to tap E-commerce & M-commerce (PULL Initiated) transactions
- Simplified (Single click 2FA) authentication
Benefits to customers:
- Privacy: Customers shall be able to transfer funds without revealing their personal details like mobile number / account number.
- Multiple Utilities: Collect request can be initiated to pull funds from the Payer, thus it has multiple utilities and applications and in many cases cash can be replaced. Cash on delivery bill split sharing etc.
- One Click 2 FA: Easy & Convenient for the customer to authorize transaction by entering only PIN.
- Works across various interfaces (PULL): Payment request can be generated in Web interface (in desktop) and can be authorized in Mobile interface (App) in later phases.