Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the modern digital transaction network could soon be used for ATM withdrawals. The Bank of India ATMs in Mumbai are already using this facility for the transactions through UPI.
One can easily withdraw cash without the debit card using the QR code on Bank of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app like Google Pay, Phone Pe, BHIM et al, and with the ATM.
As of now, only Bank of India is using this technology but a nod from National Payments Corporations of India (NCPI) – the UPI network regulator could make it universal the facility.
The new ‘cardless’ cash withdrawal technology is safer than the previous system. “This solution provides the next level of security for ATM transaction as there is no requirement of card and PIN,” said G. Padmanabhan, Chairman, Bank of India.
Deploying the new technology will not need any major investment from banks. They just need to upgrade the existing software. “For banks planning to deploy this on their ATM network, there is no major investment required as it is possible to offer the service by making a small upgrade to the existing software in ATMs,” said Ravi Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director, AGS Transact Technologies.
Modi government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the digital transaction platform which was launched three years ago has surpassed the number of debit cards payment in 2018-19. As per the RBI’s annual report; 5.35 billion UPI based transactions were recorded in FY19 while the number of debit card payments was just 4.41 billion. The number of UPI transactions was 20 per cent higher as compared to the payments via debit cards.
The UPI transactions rose from 915.2 million in FY18 to five times high in FY19 (5.35 billion). The transactions also registered a phenomenal year on year growth as compared to the other modes of non-cash payments- debit cards, credit cards, NEFT system, and point of sale (POS) terminals along with witnessing a healthy growth. For instance, NEFT registered 19.1% in terms of volume and 32.3% in terms of value (2.3 billion transactions worth Rs. 228 trillion in 2018-19) compared to the previous fiscal year.
UPI was rated as the topmost payments service in Faster Payments Innovation Index (FPII) by Fidelity National Information Services (FIS). The government made the digital and card transactions free to promote digitization of financial system in the country and this has hurt the multinationals like Visa and MasterCard which behaved irresponsibly in the past.
UPI is remarkably effective and the Indian government is also planning to avail transfer of international remittance on UPI platform. “The Virtual Payments Address (VPA) of the consumer is connected to an underlying bank account, therefore inward international remittance transfers can now also be settled through UPI,” said a top banker who is looking after the development.
India gets the highest remittance globally with the amount ranging between 60-70 billion dollars per year which is more than 2 per cent of India’s GDP. If remittance could be easily transferred through UPI, it will ease out the process for NRIs to transfer money to India and remittance amount may increase in future.