Payment Companies gather in Mumbai-India

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) the umbrella organization for all retail payments system in the country, is organizing first-of-its-kind International Conference in India wherein thought leaders of the national-level retail payment systems from 17 countries will partake and share their best practices during a two-day event to be held during May 21-22, 2015 in Trident, BKC, Mumbai.

            Objective: To share the best practices for growth of CashLess Payments in their country.

            Participants:  Thought leaders of the national-level retail payment systems from 17 countries across the world.

            Major Participants:

UnionPay International (China): - UnionPay International

Discover Financial Services (USA):- Discover Card, Discover Bank, Discover Home Loans

            Japan Credit Bureau (Japan):-  JCB Cards

            Vocalink (UK):- Payments and ATM

            Interac Association (Canada):-  Interac Cash, Interac Debit, Interac Flash

EFTPOS Payments (Australia):-  eftpos Hub, eftpos ATM Service, eftpos Chip and Contactless ,  eftpos Online, eftpos Mobile

Malaysian Electronic Payment System (Malaysia):- MEPS ATM, Shared ATM Network, Smart Card Services, Currency Notes Processing, Cash Management Services

Interswitch (Nigeria):- Payment Cards, Tokens,  

LankaClear (Sri Lanka):- SL Rupee Cheque Clearing,SL Interbank Payments,Common Card & Payment Switch (CCAPS),Digital Certification Authority (LankaSign),USD & SL Rupee Draft Clearing

RBI imposes penalty on Sri Ganesh Co-operative Bank Ltd., Gulbarga, Karnataka

The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a monetary penalty of ₹ 15.00 lakh (Rupees Fifteen lakh only) on Sri Ganesh Co-operative Bank Ltd., Gulbarga, Karnataka.

The monetary penalty is for violation of Reserve Bank of India’s instructions for violating Know Your Customers (KYC)/Anti Money Laundering (AML) Guidelines in issuing ‘at par cheques’ to large number of walk-in-customers by intentionally structuring them below ₹ 50,000/-.

RBI also observed that it had opened benami accounts and allowed huge cash deposits in such accounts.

Tourist spots in Gulbarga can be viewed here.

Taste of Gulbarga cuisine can be viewed here.

11 steps for CashLess Tirumula

          On an average 2.5 crore pilgrims every year visit Lord Venkateswara @ Tirumula.

          The Tirumala Hill is 853m above sea level. It comprises seven peaks, representing the seven heads of Adisesha, thus earning the name Seshachalam.

          Click on this link for up to data on pilgrim flow to Tirumula.

          Tirumula economy is a closed economy as most of the services are offered to the pilgrims through TTD Trust.

          The overall revenue of the temple during 2013-14 was INR 2,263 crore. This is likely to be INR 2,401 crore during the current financial year.

          The following are 11 steps for CashLess Tirumula

01)  Software partner TCS to be given mandate to develop a CashLess ecosystem too.

02) Pilgrims at entry points to Tirumula be offered Prepaid cards

03) The Biometric Band can be converted into a Prepaid wallet

04) 3-4 service providers can be chosen to implement the CashLess ecosystem. This is to encourage competition.

05) Balance in Tirumula Prepaid Cards  at the end of Tirumula Darshan, be converted as Donation to Lord Venkateswara.

06) Option to order Tirumula Prepaid Cards online while booking Sevas/Accommodation etc

07) Open priority counters to pilgrims holding Tirumula Prepaid Cards

08) Provide wide publicity through social media

09) Maximum balance in TPc to be capped at INR5000/-

10)  All TTTD employees and associated employees to be provided with Tirumula Prepaid Cards

11)  Insurance coverage @ Tirumula be bundled with Tirumula Prepaid Cards

Tirupati: Record collection of Rs 5.73 crore in one day

Tourism to Tirupati - An Empirical Study

11 motivational factors for CashLess Transactions @ Tirumula

01)  Closed economy

02) Large number of floating population

03) Average stay of pilgrim ranges from 4 hours to 48 hours

04) Pilgrims already familiar with biometric bands/eSeva/eDonation

05) Less persuasion required for Pilgrims to invest in Prepaid cards

06) Many  vendors can offer CashLess options, as the target audience is enormous

07) High retention power of the pilgrims

08) Ease in translating the vision of Digital India

09) Minimal  persuasion required for ePayment service providers to invest in CashLess Tirumula as  readymade customer pool is available

10)  Reduce  risk associated with handling physical cash

11)  Easy to replicate in other Pilgrim Towns

Reserve Bank of India recommends Banks in India to appoint Internal Ombudsman

          In a major step towards customer centricity, Reserve Bank of India today advised all Public Sector Banks and select private\foreign banks to appoint internal ombudsman.

The internal ombudsman should have the designation of  ‘Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO)’.

The CCSO should not have worked in the bank in which he/she will be appointed as CCSO.

This initiative is to further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.

Apart from Public Sector Banks, select private\foreign  banks viz ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd., have   been advised to appoint Internal Ombudsman .

The above banks have been selected on the basis of their asset size, business mix, etc.

The Reserve Bank introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) in 1995.

The aim of this scheme is to provide inexpensive forum for bank customers to resolve their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services.

The bank’s internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.

The Reserve Bank will shortly issue detailed operational guidelines to the banks.

Once the detailed guidelines are in public domain, similar advertisements will appear in the Recruitment columns.

Oriental Bank of Commerce

Dena Bank

Andhra Bank

Lakshmi Vilas Bank

Zip Zap Zoom – Only EMV chip and pin based cards from September 01, 2015

          Reserve Bank of India has announced advised all Scheduled Commercial Banks including RRBs/Co-operative Banks / State Co-operative Banks/Central Co-operative Banks/ Authorised Card Payment Networks to adopt enhanced security measures for all new cards issued – debit and credit, domestic and international.

          The guidelines come into effect from September 01, 2015. This means the respective players have sufficient time to enhance their infrastructure levels.

          The relevant RBI Notification number is RBI/2014-15/589 DPSS (CO) PD No.2112/02.14.003/2014-15

          Highlights of the Notification are:

Subject Line: Security and Risk Mitigation Measures for Card Present and Electronic Payment Transactions

           The Reserve Bank has adopted a phased manner of implementation of security and risk mitigation measures in card transactions as evident from the instructions issued from time to time. The acceptance infrastructure is getting geared to accept EMV chip and pin cards.

However, in case of card issuance, while some banks have already moved to EMV chip and pin cards issuance, a large number of banks continue to issue Magnetic stripe cards.

Thus, given the level of readiness of the card acceptance infrastructure at point of sale and also the implementation of PIN@POS for debit cards, the time is appropriate to move further along the path to migrate away from magnetic stripe only cards to chip and pin cards.

 Accordingly, banks are advised that with effect from September 01, 2015 all new cards issued – debit and credit, domestic and international – by banks shall be EMV chip and pin based cards.

 The migration plan for existing magnetic stripe only cards will be framed in consultation with stakeholders and timeline for the same will be advised in due course.