Aadhaar Payment Bridge System – The heart of GOI’s DCT.

            The APBS was conceptualized by NPCI in the mid 2011, with Reserve Bank of India, according permission to launch it in October 2011. Bank of India was the first bank to go live on APBS, followed by ICICI Bank and Union Bank of India.

            The testing field was the state of Jharkhand.

APBS was built around the Aadhaar Numbers being issued by UIDAI. The Aadhaar number is the common link between the Government Departments and the beneficiary.

The core idea of APBS is to ensure that the Aadhaar number holder receives his/her funds from the Government in the respective bank account. The Aadhaar number holder need not inform all the government departments in case of the change of his bank account number.

The mapping between the bank account number and the Aadhaar number would be via the ‘Mapper Module’, built in APBS.   

In the long run, this approach would result in a) minimal transaction cost b) reduced TAT c) minimal customer complaints d) minimal recon issues.

The present process flow is as follows: -

01) The government departments submit the transaction files to NPCI via their Sponsor Bank between 10.30am to 12.30pm.

02)Around 2.00pm, NPCI switches the transactions to the recipient banks, to the banks as mapped on the Aadhaar Mapper which is a part of APBS.

03)By 3.00pm the beneficiary banks would have passed on the credits to the respective beneficiary account holders.

04)By 5.00pm, the beneficiary banks intimate NPCI the status of the individual transactions i.e successful or rejected.

05)By 7.00pm, NPCI updates the statuses to the Sponsor Banks.

All the above happens on the same day. Initially there is only one payment cycle. Yes, the APBS can handle multiple payment cycle, it is up to the sponsor banks and the government departments to demand more payment cycle, in case of surge in the volumes. 

West Bengal State Cooperative Bank joins the RuPay Debit Card network.

             The account holders of cooperative banks are eager to embrace the latest banking technology in their routine banking activities.  Absence of an ATM Cards was a major drawback for the cooperative banks.

            With the launch of RuPay Card by NPCI, the cooperative banks had a chance to attract more SB accounts into their fold.

            In this regard, West Bengal State Cooperative Bank has taken the initiative to join the RuPay network,  as the first State Co-operative  Bank to take join the National level ATM (NFS) network of the country.

Dr Prakash Bakshi, Chairman of NABARD was in Kolkota to inaugurate this technology project during the last week of December.

            The major benefit will be to the customers of 17 District Central Cooperative Banks under their ambit, as the RuPay card can be issued by the respective district central cooperative banks to their customers.

            The bank was originally registered in 1918 as ‘The Bengal Provincial Co-op. Federation Ltd.’ It was renamed as the ‘The West Bengal State Cooperative Bank Limited’ in 1967.

As it is the number of ATM’s being opened in Tier II and Tier III towns is on the increase. The ATM’s should have a minimum of transactions to break-even. Hence the more the ATM Cards, the more chances of high transactions on  ATMs’.

Harmonization of Bank Account Numbers in India – BBAN structure announced

            At present, there is no defined common structure for generating Bank account numbers by the individual banks. Each Bank follows its own internal guidelines.

The structure of the Bank accounts underwent a sea-change with the introduction of CBS. At present, CBS has been implemented in all the banks.

            At various forums, the bank customers and also RBI were veering towards the idea of a common bank account number structure across the banking industry.

The major benefit of such standardization is the 100% STP of ePayments. Towards this end, RBI decided to constitute a Committee “to examine Uniform routing code and account number structure” for banks in India, in the Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2012-13 on October 30, 2012, (para 122).

The Committee has since been announced and the committee was required to submit its report by end-December 2012. The report has since been submitted.

One of the main recommendations of the committee is the structure of the BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number). BBAN will be a subset of the IBAN (International Bank Account Number).

The BBAN will be 18 digits long. No,the banks need not change their existing account numbers. It has observed that the Bank account numbers in India range from 6 digits to 18 digits. Hence, any Bank with account number less than 18 digits, will pad the account number with ZEROS.  

The implementation date is not yet announced as RBI has just released the committee report and requested for public comments on the same. However, the Banks have a window of 3 years for fully migrating to the BBAN.

            It is envisaged that if the IBAN is not in the standard format, the ePayment will be rejected at the Originating point itself thereby minimizing customer discomfort.

RTGS Holidays 2013

            Reserve Bank Of India, has released the list of RTGS Holidays 2013. As informed earlier, the RTGS and NEFT holidays have been synchronized. This means on the same day, RTGS and NEFT will be closed.

Well, with IMPS working 365 days, bank customers still have the option of making inter-bank account transfers on holidays too.  

RTGS Holidays – 2013

Sr. No.	Date	Day	Occasion
1	January 26, 2013	Saturday	Republic Day
2	March 29, 2013	Friday	Good Friday
3	April 1, 2013	Monday	Annual Closing of Banks
4	July 1, 2013	Monday	Annual Closing of RBI
5	August 9, 2013	Friday	Ramjan Id (Id-Ul-Fitar) (Shaval-1)
6	August 15, 2013	Thursday	Independence Day
7	September 30, 2013	Monday	Half Yearly Closing of Banks
8	October 02, 2013	Wednesday	Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti
9	October 16, 2013	Wednesday	Id-Uz-Zoha
10	November 14, 2013	Thursday	Mohurram
11	December 25, 2013	Wednesday	Christmas

Validity of Non-CTS 2010 cheques extended by another 3 months.

            All the Banking participants, be it Banks, or Bank customers or Loan companies or Security printers or Courier folks, were working overtime in the last couple of months, to be ready for the CTS 2010 Cheques from 01/01/2013.

            As still a large number of non-CTS 2010 cheques were floating in the Indian Financial system, and numerous representations being made to RBI, RBI has decided that the norms for CTS 2010 Cheques will come in force from 01/04/2013.

Once the country is fully under the CTS system, the physical movement of cheques between banks will be eliminated. This expected in the next couple of years. Till than there will be physical movement of cheques at least from the depositing customer to the collecting banks’ service branch.

Main features of CTS 2010 cheques:

·         The CTS-2010 is not just a change in the process of cheque clearing. The change in the system is apparent even on the cheque leaf you use.

·         A CTS compliant cheque leaf is different from a normal cheque leaf you currently use, and has certain distinct features.

1.     Cheque printer details: This is printed on the extreme left hand side of the cheque.

2.    The printer details along with the words ‘CTS-2010’ is mentioned along the area where you tear off the leaf from the cheque book.

3.    Rupee symbol: The new symbol of the Indian rupee is printed beside the area where the amount in figures needs to be written.

4.    Details of the bank and its logo: The bank details and its logo are printed on the face of the cheque. However, it is printed in invisible ink.

5.    Signature space indicator: The words ‘please sign above’ are mentioned indicating the space where you will need to sign the cheque.

6.    VOID pantograph: This is a wavelike design, which is visible to the naked eye and seen below the area where the account number is printed.

7.    Date column: The date column has boxes to fill in the date in numbers.

8.    No overwriting allowed, overwriting cheques are liable to rejected without being processed further.