NPCI: Chartering a Payment Freeway

The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has grown ten times in just one decade and it is well on its way to its target of 100 mn transaction per day. It started as a joint initiative of Reserve Bank of India and Indian Bank’s Association (IBA) with an ambition to become the “best payments network globally” and with a mission to touch “every Indian with one or other payment services”. It is in all segments of B2B, B2C, B2G, P2P, B2B, G2P and has been playing the role of backbone to India’s payment system. It has some universally successful products and services like UPI, BHIM, NACH, etc. The achievement of NPCI is commendable in that they are in FinTech World operating on not for profit basis. Its robustness got tested comprehensively when lockdown for covid was announced in March. It responded quickly to the challenges lockdown and social distancing, and used this to introduce rapid changes in technology.