India’s move towards cashless transfer economy, goes live today as the Unified Payments Interface gets activated from 21 Banks across the country. Announcing this on Thursday, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a statement on Thursday that the UPI system is active and running for 19 banks and for the remaining two banks the system will be live in 2-3 days. With a Beta version of the system launched in April last year, a pilot was being done with a few participants to identify and resolve bugs and glitches.  Now that it is all done, the UPI application is active and running for all 21 participating banks. UPI is based on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platform and can be availed by customers of banks agreeing to provide the service.  UPI is a common platform through which a person can transfer money from his or her bank account to any other bank account in the country instantly using his/her UPI ID. Some major banks like State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda will mostly go live in the second phase of the launch, which is slated for September 30. According to Shiv Kumar Bhasin, chief technology officer at SBI, the country’s largest lender is “close to finishing” the development of its UPI application and has not faced any kind of glitch whatsoever with the platform so far. “There is no doubt that UPI is a great initiative. Only time will tell how it will be received by the public but it will certainly make it easier for customers to transfer funds, especially so after most banks have finished integrating with the platform,” Bhasin said. Participating Banks Andhra Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Bhartiya Mahila Bank, Canara Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, DCB Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, TJSB Sahakari Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Karnataka Bank, UCO Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, South Indian Bank, Vijaya Bank and YES Bank. How does UPI work A unique UPI ID will be created by participating Bank for users who want to use the UPI system.  This ID will be linked to the registered Mobile No.  For eg. if you mobile number is 987654321 and Bank is ICICI, then your UPI ID could be 987654321@ICICI.  All you need to do now is to log in to the UPI Application with the ID and Password and transfer request to another registered UPI ID with either the same bank or another UPI Bank. Making Life Easier

• Cashless transfer – no waiting in line for NEFT or seeking MMID for IMPS
• UPI turns smartphone into payment bank.  All that is needed is smartphone with the Banking App installed, to send and receive funds instantly or to make a payment in retail purchase
• With UPI, only mobile number of the recipient is required for an instant transfer any time or day of the week using just Smartphone.  Sending or receiving money is done through either NEFT, RTGS, or IMPS system, which needs mandatory information of the recipient (viz. IFSC, Account number, etc).
• Shopping is less cumbersome.  Allows to send/receive funds alongwith  integrated payment systems to make merchant payments. UPI facilitates instant Transfer of money from user bank account to merchant’s account.
• UPI transactions are available 24x7x365.  Once the app is downloaded you need to select the amount to be paid, add the unique id of your beneficiary, and select ‘Send’. After a confirmation password on your phone and you approval, funds gets instantly transferred to the recipient’s bank account, whether in India or Abroad.

  Source: The Financial Express