Rupay Cards – Authentication of online transactions via PaySecure online PIN Pad.

Well, the PIN Pad is not a physical instrument, it is a visual online i.e virtual Pin Pad.

Acculynk and National  Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) have announced an Internet PIN Debit Partnership, for Rupay Debit Cards.

Top 10 points’ of this tie-up

1. RuPay is a PIN (Personal Identification Number) - only based debit card. This means at POS Terminals, to execute a transaction a PIN is required.
   
   
2. Separate technology is required to integrate the PIN Based option for eCommerce. Towards this end, NPCI has partnered with Acculynk.
   
   
3. The same PIN number is valid for all ATM/POS/eCommerce transactions.
   
   
4. Now eCommerce Rupay Debit Card purchases will have the additional and mandatory safety of two factor authentication.
   
   
5. RuPay debit card was launched on 26th March 2012 with 4 Banks i.e State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Union Bank of India.
   
   
6. In the initial phase banks accepting RuPay Debit cards on their POS terminals are Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank and State Bank of India.
   
   
7. As on Feb 12, the number of POS Terminals the above Banks had are Axis Bank (1,98,297), Bank of Baroda (4558), Corporation Bank (14,480), State Bank of India (0).,
   
   
8. With Acculynk’s PaySecure®, online shoppers enter their PIN on a virtual PIN-pad at the merchant checkout, and only need their existing debit card and a PIN number to complete the transaction. There are no hardware devices, additional passwords, or redirection to another website for payment.
   
   
9. RuPay logo is already there on most of the ATMs in the country, and very shortly it will be visible in most POS Terminals across the nation.
   
   
10. It will take another couple of months, before you can obtain a Rupay Debit Card and start swiping it for transactions.

Black Money in India – ePayments tricks to reduce it

Today’s Post is with reference to the White Paper presented to Indian Parliament by Finance Minister, Mr.Pranab Mukherjee.

This report has been prepared by Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue-Central Board of Direct Taxes.

To Safe ePayments professionals, the Black Money-White Paper holds lot of promise. Some suggestions in the White Paper have the potential to boost the ePayments volumes.

The following are noteworthy from the epayments angle.

QUOTE

Para No 5.2.27- Page No 55

Another important measure in this regard could be the promotion of banking channels including use of credit and debit cards, since they leave adequate audit trails and hence disincentivise black money generation.

The opposite is true of trade practices that block the audit trail, such as cheque discounting, which can be discouraged applying the same logic. With electronic transfer facilities being available to trade, one can foresee this as one of the major thrusts towards strengthening accountability and discouraging unaccounted activities.

Towards this end, some important initiatives have already being taken which include the reduction of the validity period of cheques and demand drafts from six to three months with effect from 1April 2012, which will discourage discounting of negotiable instruments.

Payments by debit and credit cards through Indian e-service intermediaries like 'RuPay'2 can further bring down the costs of using such cards, improve their acceptability, and thereby encourage payments in these modes and reduce the cash economy.

It is imperative that payment of wages and salaries in the private sector should also be through banking channels and should become cashless, in line with the government objective of financial inclusion.

Government can also deliberate providing tax incentives for use of credit/debit cards as practiced in Republic of Korea.

Provisions for collection of tax at source at a low level on cash purchases may also be considered as a possible policy option.

UNQUOTE

Once Rupay is up and running, the transaction cost to all the participants will reduce drastically. As of now, in small/medium shops 2% excess is charged, if the customer desires to pay via Credit/Debit Card. Hence, customers do no tend to opt for the Credit/Debit card payment option.

Plus industry wide push is not still not very much visible. Continuous campaigns to educate the customers the benefits of Credit/Debit Cards will aid in increasing the volumes.

In the recent past, State Bank of India was running a TV Campaign and AXIS a Print/TV Campaign. Visa/Mastercard too run campaigns.

However, ways should be found out, to reduce the Credit/Debit fraudulent transactions. Otherwise, with the increase in the volumes, the fraudulent transactions too will increase.

Cheque Truncation System in India - slowly spreading its wings

The benefits of CTS are not yet visible to the general public. Once the Southern Grid is fully operationalized, the change will be clearly noticeable.

As per RBI FAQ’s on CTS, the new approach is the Grid Based approach, wherein the whole country will be divided into Grids.

As a beginning, Chennai Grid has been operationalized in March 12, with few banks of Bangalore and Coimbatore joining it. Like all good things in life, it will be a while, before all Bangalore/Coimbatore Bank branches are on the CTS Grid.

Eventually, the Chennai Grid will cover Bank Branches in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

In my view, the major benefit of CTS will be enhancement of the coverage of the Speed Clearing.

Let me explain in detail.

The below table contains list of few Co-operative with exclusive presence in Tamil Nadu or in Coimbatore/Chennai cities.

Sample List of Co-operative Banks
COIMBATORE CITY COOP.BANK LTD	Coimbatore
COIMBATORE DIST.CENTRAL COOP.BANK LTD	Coimbatore
COIMBATORE DIST.CENTRAL COOP.BANK LTD METTUPALAYAM	Coimbatore
METTUPALAYAM COOP.URBAN BANK LTD	Coimbatore
PALLAVAN GRAMA BANK LTD	Coimbatore
POLLACHI COOP.URBAN BANK LTD	Coimbatore
TAMILNADU INDUSTRIAL COOPERATIVE BANK LTD.	Coimbatore
CHENNAI CENTRAL CO-OP. BANK LTD.	Chennai
GEORGE TOWN CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD.(GTC)	Chennai
TAMILNADU INDUSTRIAL COOPERATIVE BANK LTD.	Chennai
TAMILNADU MERCANTILE BANK LTD.	Chennai
TAMILNADU STATE APEX CO-OP. BK. LTD.	Chennai

Suppose a Bangalore based customer-(holding account with ABC Bank) receives a cheque drawn on COIMBATORE CITY COOP.BANK LTD

Sr.No	The Present	The Future
01)	Customer deposits it in ABC Bank Branch	No Change
02)	ABC Bank branch forwards it to their Bangalore Service Branch	No Change
03)	ABC Bangalore service branch, forwards cheque to their Coimbatore service branch	Change	Cheque is lodged under CTS Grid Clearing. The image is transmitted to COIMBATORE CITY COOP.BANK LTD branch
04)	ABC Coimbatore service branch presents in local clearing	Change	This step is eliminated
05)	Status - If ‘return’, the physical cheque is sent back to ABC Bangalore service branch.	Change	This step is eliminated
06)	Status - If ‘no return’, amount is credited to the customers account.	No Change

The Benefits:

1. Reduction in TAT for credit to the customer.
2. Enhancement of Scope of Speed Clearing i.e., Co-operative Banks/RRB’s/LAB’s/ Other Banks still not part of Speed Clearing
3. Increase of volumes processed under CTS.
4. Boost for financial inclusion, as citizens residing in remote/small places with access only to Co-op Banks/RRB’s can also get the benefits of faster realization of cheques.

Streamlining of few areas:

Paper to Follow – The less the ‘paper to follow’, requests, the more will the efficiency of the CTS will increase.

1. One recent Finance Ministry Notification should reduce the ‘paper to follow’, instruments to Government Departments i.e Controller General of Accounts (CGA) directed all payments above Rs 25,000 to suppliers, contractors, grantee and loan institutions to be directly credited to their bank accounts. This is with effect from 01/04/2012.
2. As the participants gain experience of the CTS environment IQA Failure cases would go down.

Bank Holidays under NI Act:

Regional Holiday and Blockage

The Grid Jurisdiction will fall under different states, and the states have different holidays calendars.

The CTS Application has a “Blockage” function in the system to handle different state holidays, for a ‘value date’. The blockage prevents other banks to present any cheques on the branch / bank put under blockage.

In addition, it gives extension to all unexpired items drawn on such branches and banks for the blockage period.

The branches / banks under blockage can not lodge any fresh presentation during the blockage period.

New Returns Reasons under Cheque Truncation System (CTS)

Reason No                  Reason Description

82                               Bank/ Branch blocked

83                               Digital Certificate Validation failure

92                               Bank Excluded

Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) – India’s own 24/7, 365days Money Transfer option

HSBC India, has become the first foreign bank in India to offer ‘Person to Merchant’ (P2M) cash management tool, tailored on IMPS to its corporate customers.

As readers are award, through IMPS customers can transfer funds from one bank account to another using mobile. The mobile is the delivery channel.

There are two options in IMPS ‘Person to Person’ (P2P) or ‘Person to Merchant’ (P2M).

Opting for the latter, HSBC India has now become the first foreign bank in the country to offer P2M service.

Banks are now slowly waking up to the benefits of IMPS as a Cash Management tool. IMPS is relevant across many industry sectors including FMCG, Insurance, Mutual Funds, Retail, E-Commerce, Entertainment and Education.

The IMPS mode enables consumers, investors, retailers, dealers and franchises to effect payments in a fast, convenient and cost effective manner, minimizing the risks involved associated with other existing modes such as cash and checks.

The major benefit for Corporates in IMPS is the real time information on credit via email and SMS alerts. Plus as IMPS works round the clock, 365days a year, funds can be transferred any time, without the limitations of branch banking.

IMPS is a payments platform that allows customers to use mobile technology as a channel for accessing their bank accounts and initiate interbank fund transfers in a fast, secure manner. Transfers can be 'Person to Person' (P2P) or 'Person to Merchant' (P2M). HSBC has launched the Person to Merchant Payments segment today and is the first foreign bank in India to do so.

To make a payment, the customer has to enter beneficiary’s Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) - (which will be provided by the beneficiary bank as a part of the setup process), the beneficiary’s mobile number, the amount he/she wishes to transfer and the payment reference like bill, invoice or transaction number. Bill, Invoice or transaction number is an additional feature in the P2M mode, as each payment has to be tagged to a bill, invoice or transaction number for future references.

A separate IT Application might be required for P2M IMPS transactions, as an additional field i.e. bill, invoice or transaction number will be part of the transaction.

India's Satyamevjayate – 10 differentiators for its success. Truth Alone Truimphs

The trending topic across all social media channels in Aamir Khan’s Satyamevjayate.

Well, he has lit the fire, and now there should be enough momentum to take it forward.

Otherwise, it will be just like other sparks, which have had a pre-mature death.

Yes, lots of planning, immense brain-storming, huge financial investments have gone into the program.

10 differentiators which I believe will ensure that this program is a mega-success.

1. Huge peer expectations. The film fraternity has given wide thumps-up to the initial episode. All the episodes have already been canned, so online course correction will not be there.

2. Mega public expectations. All Star Group TV channels were inundated with the Program promos, building up the excitement.

3. Aamir’s attitude to be different.

4. The ‘Think Big Strategy’, of the whole program. If the message goes through, it will be an immense boost to Aamir and Sponsors. If the message fails the downside is minimal.

5. Show Timing i.e. 11 am on Sundays, folks have gotten up, had a sumptuous brunch, motivating them to focus on the Show. And, this is the beginning of the financial year; 2012-13 targets are still being finalized.

6. Duration of the show i.e. Only 13 episodes. As the number is already announced viewers’ stickiness is ensured. Highlighting the number of episodes in advance conveys the message that the duration of the program is short n sweet.

7. Sponsors willingness to experiment new viewer engagement techniques especially on the social media.

8. Difficulty in replicating a similar program in the near future.

9. Pan-India appeal of the issues showcased in the Program.

10. Aamir’s willingness to share space with relevant field-experts I.e. the spotlight is not on the Presenter i.e. Aamir, but on the issue.

References: http://www.satyamevjayate.in/

"Satyameva Jayate" (satyam-eva jayate सत्यमेव जयते; literal English: Truth Stands Invincible) is a Hindu mantra from the ancient scripture Mundaka Upanishad.

Upon independence of India, it was adopted as the national motto of India.

It is inscribed in Devanagari script at the base of the national emblem