What is the full form of NPCI

NPCI: National Payments Corporation of India

NPCI stands for National Payments Corporation of India. It deals with the retail payments and settlement systems in India. It was established with the support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA), under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 for providing advanced Payment and Settlement Infrastructure in India.

It gives emphasis on bringing innovations in the retail payment systems through the use of technology for gaining greater efficiency in operations and increasing the reach of payment systems. National Financial Switch (NFS) and Cheque Truncation System (CTS) are some of the major products of NPCI which are still in use.

Values of NPCI:

• Passion for Excellence
• Integrity
• Customer Centricity
• Respect
• Collaboration

Milestones:

• National Financial Switch (NFS) is the largest network of shared Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in India. On 14 December 2009, NPCI took over NFS from Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT).
• Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) was introduced on 22 November 2010 by Smt. Shyamala Gopinath, DG RBI at Mumbai. This service is provided by NPCI through its existing NFS switch.
• In January 2011, AePS is established, which a bank-led model which allows online interoperable financial inclusion transaction at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication. The members from NPCI participated in the establishment of this entity.
• In March 2012, NPCI introduced RuPay, a new card payment scheme to provide a domestic, open-loop, multilateral system to enable Indian banks and financial institutions to participate in electronic payments.
• In 2012 December, NPCI implemented "National Automated Clearing House (NACH)" for banks, financial institutions, corporate and government to allow them interbank, high volume electronic transactions which are repetitive.
• In February 2013, NPCI introduced Aadhar Payment Bridge System (APBS) for the government departments and agencies to facilitate the electronic transfer of benefits and subsidiaries under Direct Benefit Scheme (DBT) of Govt. of India.
• In August 2014, NPCI launched *99# service to take the banking services to every part and every person of the country.
• In April 2016, NPCI introduced Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to allow customers to transfer money using their mobile or smartphones by creating a UPI i.d.
• In December 2016, NPCI developed the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program to meet the electronic tolling requirements of the Indian market.
• In December 2016, it introduced Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) to allow users to make simple, secure, and quick payment transactions using Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
• In March 2017, NPCI, in collaboration with the ICS (International Card Schemes) developed a common standard QR code specifications (BHARATQR). It allowed merchants to display their QR codes, and customers can pay through their cards by scanning these QR codes via Bharat QR enabled application in an interoperable environment.
• In August 2018, NPCI launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) 2.0.
• In March 2019, NPCI launched RuPay platform, an inter-operable transport card on debit, credit and prepaid platform to allow the cardholders to pay for their bills, travel, toll taxes, retail shopping and to withdraw money.