UPI to open for public in July, says NPCI COO

Mumbai, June 17: The Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which was launched in April by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), will become available for public use next month. As many as 16 scheduled commercial banks are set to go live with their UPI applications when the platform goes live on July15, Dilip Asbe, chief operating officer at NPCI, told FE.

The UPI is a common platform through which a person can transfer money from his bank account to any other bank account in the country instantly using nothing but his/her UPI ID.

The interface will be based on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platfor m and can be availed of by customers of banks that have agreed to provide the service.

The public sector banks that are ready to launch their UPI platforms in July are Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Vijaya Bank, UCO Bank, Bhartiya Mahila Bank, Canara Bank and Andhra Bank.

According to a senior official at State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, will not be ready with its UPI application before September.

The private sector banks that will be making their UPI apps public next month are ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, YES Bank, Federal Bank, DCB Bank and Catholic Syrian Bank.

The UPI platform will combine all the bank accounts held by a single entity and will require only one step of authentication, which will be a unique ID. Instead of entering the 26odd alphabets and numerals between the account number and the IFSC code, the customer has to only enter his/her unique ID to go through with the transaction.

One need not provide details of either party’s account details as is the case with transferring funds online through net banking or mobile banking.