Central Bank Of India : launched RuPay Debit Card and Wonder Card

Central Bank of India launched RuPay Debit Card and Wonder Card.
In a glittering function at Sorabji House, Fort, Mumbai on 9th May, 2013, Central Bank of India launched RuPay Debit Card and Wonder Card. RuPay debit card is the debut card launched by Central Bank of India on RuPay Platform (Swadeshi Platform) under National Payments Corporation of India. Wonder Card is the unique debit card for salary account customers. This card in-builds the features of debit cum credit card (Overdraft facility).

The dignitaries who were present included Shri M.V. Tanksale, CMD, Central Bank of India, Shri Malaya Mukherjee, ED, Central Bank of India, Shri R.K. Goyal, ED, Central Bank of India, Directors on the Board of Central Bank of India and Shri Dilip Asbe, Chief Technology officer, National Payments Corporation of India.

RuPay Card crosses 3 million mark, to be e-commerce-ready by May 25

 

MUMBAI: The RuPay Card, India's only homegrown plastic money solution, will be crossing the last hurdle in its push to be present on all the e-payment gateways by getting accepted in the e-commerce space by May 25.

According to RBI-promoted National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), which developed the card, it is also planning to more than treble the issuance of the RuPay cards to over 10 million by the end of FY14. Within two years of launch, it has issued over 3 million RuPay cards as of end March.



"Come May 25, the RuPay cards will be ready for e-commerce payments. So far, we were present only at the ATM and points-of-sale (PoS) space. With the activation of the RuPay Cards on the e-commerce space we will be present on the entire e-payment space," NPCI Managing Director and Chief Executive A P Hota told PTI here.

NPCI has targeted to take the number of RuPay cards to 10 million by the end of the current fiscal, he said.

However, RuPay has a long long way to go before it can give a run for the money to Visa and MasterCard, the two biggest players in the segment who together have 280 million cards in use in India currently.

As of now, RuPay cards are accepted at all the 1.12 lakh ATMs and around 1.8 lakh out of the 8 lakh merchant terminals in the country, Hota said.

"So, on the PoS space, our focus is to get acceptance by private sector banks which dominate the PoS space. Issuance will be limited to urban cooperatives and regional rural banks," he said, adding 50 of the 54 UCBs have been covered while only a handful of RRBs are left out.

Asked how far it will take the card to break even, Hota said, "hopefully by the seventh year operations. Being service-oriented, our priority is not to make money. We can very well turn profitable if we charge at the rate others are charging. We are a not-for-profit entity building a public infrastructure for the nation."

As of now only eight public lenders - SBI, BoB, PNB, Canara Bank, OBC, BoI, Union Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank, and private sector Federal Bank are issuing the RuPay cards.
That is happening only in rural areas, where they will not be issuing Visa/MasterCard cards. SBI will be issuing only RuPay cards going ahead in the Odisha circle, he said.

'Desi' alternative to VISA, Mastercard from July

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/329727/039desi039-alternative-visa-mastercard-july.html

Come July this year, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)'s RuPay debit card will go 'global' in a strategic tie-up with an American card issuer, Discover Financial Services (DFS) which will offer international acceptance of the card.

With this, RuPay will emerge as an alternative of international payment gateways like VISA or Mastercard and wants to make substantial difference in payment landscape.

In an interview to Deccan Herald, NPCI Managing Director & CEO A P Hota said both RuPay and the US firm DFS would stand to gain from this partnership due to extended distribution network of their respective cardholders. DFS is a banking and payments services firm that competes with payment companies such as Visa and MasterCard, even as it owns the card company Discover, Diners Club cards and Pulse ATM networks.
Unlike Visa and MasterCard, which partner banks to enable them issue cards with similar features, Discover adopts a philosophy of partnering local payment networks across the world, Hota pointed out.

“Also, the RuPay Card is leveraging upon EMV technology of Discover to issue global cards. Cards, terminal and host specifications for the RuPay global cards have already been released to the pilot-member banks. Issuance of RuPay global cards will commence in July with two banks,” he said.

Further, Hota said NPCI has spent over Rs 100 crore on RuPay card scheme infrastructure which is geared to serve all customer segments, across payment channels and form factors.  RuPay, according to him, has clearly defined product roadmap keeping both domestic as well as international needs of prospective customers and banks. 

Under the strategic alliance, Hota added, NPCI and DFS have already announced operationalisation of acceptance of Discover and Diners’ Club cards in India on NPCI’s NFS (National Financial Switch) network. Accordingly, Discover and Diners Club cards now are accepted at over 85,000 DFS ATMs across the country, NPCI chief said. In the coming months, RuPay global cards will be issued and accepted on the Discover, Diners Club International and PULSE networks for international purchases and cash access outside India. This will be followed by the acceptance of Discover and Diners Club cards access at point-of-sale (PoS) terminals for purchases in the country.

NPCI started its services providing cheaper access to third-party ATMs by setting up a network with very low transaction charges coupled with strong support from the Reserve Bank of India. Giving a macro perspective, Botha said, so far 25 commercial banks, 25 regional rural banks, and 30 urban co-operative banks have issued over 1.5 million RuPay cards.  From readiness perspective, all the ATMs in the country are integrated with RuPay.
On financial data, Hota said the project was initially conceived by the RBI and was taken forward for implementation by Indian Banks Association in March 2012.

"We would be able to break-even in this project in five years from when we commenced, which is by financial year 2017-18."  NPCI Board is headed by Infosys Technologies' emeritus chairman N R Narayanamurthy with nominees drawn from RBI and 10 core promoter banks -- State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank, HSBC.

APGVB launches cards on RuPay platform

Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB) has launched ATM-cum-debit cards and kisan credit cards on the RuPay platform. 

“With this initiative, our small depositors and farmer-borrowers will have access to draw their money from any ATM owned by State Bank Group, ICICI, HDFC and AXIS Bank,” K. Lakshmana Rao, Chairman, APGVB, said in a release on Monday. 

The regional rural bank, sponsored by State Bank of India, was only second in its category to launch the service, he added. The Rupay platform is powered by National Payments Corporation of India as a rival to global payment product companies such as MasterCard and Visa. 

During the last financial year ended March 31, 2013, APGVB’s business crossed Rs 12,000-core mark with a net profit of Rs 164 crore.

Federal Bank launches Rupay brand debit card

Private sector Federal Bank today launched Rupay brand debit card.

The debit card would be accepted in over one lakh ATM's of National Financial Switch member banks in the country and would be accepted on point of sale and Internet soon.

"Federal Bank is the first private sector bank and the 10th bank in the country to launch Rupay Card," a bank press release said here today.

Rupay is the card scheme launched by the National Payment Corporation of India to offer a domestic, open loop, multilateral system which will allow all Indian banks and financial institutions in India to participate in the electronic payments market.

Rupay's strategic objective includes providing assistance in making cash payments electronic, creating a common platform for all banks and payment forms channels, becoming a "top of the wallet" card for all Indian consumers across segments, providing available domestic option to Indian market and acting as a nodal body for the electronics payments industry.

Since the Rupay Transaction processing will happen domestically, it would lead to lower transaction cost for Federal Bank, compared to international schemes, the release said.

Rupay will also build an environment whereby payment information of the country remains within the country which would be beneficial for both the bank and customers by means of reduced settlement cost.

The bank has 1,103 branches and 1,180 ATMs across India. Its total business (deposits and advances) crossed milestone of Rs One lakh crore as on March 31, 2013 (unaudited figures), the release said.

NPCI to launch RuPay global cards by July

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) today said its RuPay debit card will go international by July and announced a tie-up with an American card issuer.

Announcing the tie-up with Discover here, NPCI Chief Executive A P Hota said both RuPay and the American firm stand to gain from this partnership due to extended distribution network of their respective cardholders.

"The RuPay Card is also leveraging upon EMV technology of Discover to issue global cards. Cards, terminal and host specifications for the RuPay global cards have since been released to the pilot-member banks. Issuance of RuPay global cards will commence in July with two banks," Hota said.

NPCI and Discover Financial Services also announced operationalisation of acceptance of Discover and Diners' Club cards in India on NPCI's NFS (National Financial Switch) network.

As part of a strategic alliance, announced last year, Discover and Diners Club cards now are accepted at over 85,000 NFS ATMs across the country, Hota said.

In the coming months, RuPay global cards will be issued and accepted on the Discover, Diners Club International and PULSE networks for international purchases and cash access outside India. This will be followed by the acceptance of Discover and Diners Club cards access at point-of-sale terminals for purchases in the country.

NPCI ties up with Discover Financial

Reserve Bank of India-backed National Payments Corp. of India Ltd (NPCI), the nodal agency to manage and promote retail electronic payments in India, on Friday tied-up with US-based Discover Financial Services to launch globally accepted debit cards.

NPCI is already running an indigenous debit card payment network called RuPay to compete with multinationals Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.

 

“Discover card holders can now already use them in 85,000 ATMs linked to the national financial switch in India and from June end or early July. Rupay card holders can also use them abroad,” said A.P. Hota, managing director and chief executive officer, NPCI.