Interbank Mobile Payment Service

Few years back, majority of interbank fund transfers were channelized through NEFT(National Electronic Fund Transfer) mechanism. Under NEFT, the transactions were processed and settled in batches. So, it didn’t offer a real time service. RTGS(Real Time Gross Settlement) was launched to provide interbank fund transfers in real time. Further, IMPS was launched on 22^nd November 2010 to take the initiative of providing real time services ahead. IMPS or Interbank Mobile Payment Service is instant interbank fund transfer service by mobile in a secured manner with NPCI as the central routing Agency.

 Participating Banks in IMPS   

Citibank is the first foreign bank in India to offer IMPS.

Eligibility Criteria for a bank participating in IMPS

• Bank should be a member of National Financial Switch driven by NPCI
• Bank should have an approval from RBI for Mobile Banking Service

IMPS Features and Regulations

• 24x7x365 Availability
• No more sharing of bank account details
• Credit and debit confirmations to sender and receiver
• Simple & easy to use
• Time & cost saving
• Safe & Secure
• Rs 0.10 per successful transaction from 1^st April 2011
• For the first year, no fee to be levied on unsuccessful/failed transactions

  IMPS for Retail banking customers

The IMPS for retail banking provides functionality for its customers to make/receive payments via a mobile channel, thus eliminating the need for physical cash payments.

Sender inputs the Beneficiary Mobile Number(Reciever's Mobile Number), MMID(Mobile Money Identifier), and the amount in sender bank’s mobile banking application.. Sender bank verifies the sender and checks his account for the availability of funds. Transaction details are sent to the receiver bank’s switch from Sender Bank’s switch via the NFS(National Financial Switch). NFS sends authorization to respective banks(senders and recievers) to debit sender’s account(Remitter Bank) and credit’s receiver’s account. After the transaction, SMS confirmation alert is sent to the sender and receiver by their respective banks.

Note :MMID is a unique number which identifies the receiver.There is a limit of Rs. 50,000 per day/per MMID for encrypted transfers and Rs. 1000 per day/per MMID for unencrypted transfers.

Objectives of IMPS

• To enable bank customers to use mobile instruments as a channel for accessing their banks accounts and remit funds
• Making payment simpler just with the mobile number of the beneficiary
• To sub-serve the goal of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in electronification of retail payments
• To facilitate mobile payment systems already introduced in India with the Reserve Bank of India Mobile Payment Guidelines 2008 to be inter-operable across banks and mobile operators in a safe and secured manner
• To build the foundation for a full range of mobile based Banking services.