NPCI: the rails under Indian payments
The National Payments Corporation of India runs UPI, RuPay, IMPS and the bridge that carries Aadhaar-based subsidies into bank accounts. What each one does.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is a not-for-profit company set up in 2008-09 under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks' Association, and owned by banks. It runs most of India's retail payment systems. Its own description of each product is at npci.org.in.
The systems that touch Aadhaar
| System | What it does | Aadhaar's role |
|---|---|---|
| Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) | Carries government payments to beneficiaries in bulk | Payments are addressed by Aadhaar number, not account number |
| NPCI mapper | Records which bank account each Aadhaar is seeded to | The last account seeded receives the payment |
| AEPS | Cash, balance and transfers at micro-ATMs | Fingerprint authentication through UIDAI |
| UPI | Instant account-to-account payments by phone | Aadhaar OTP is one way to set a UPI PIN |
| IMPS | Instant transfers between banks, since 2010 | None directly |
| RuPay | India's domestic card network | None directly |
Core banking and seeding
A bank "seeds" an Aadhaar number when it records it against an account in its core banking system and reports it to the NPCI mapper. Seeding is what makes a direct benefit transfer land in the right place. If your benefit stops arriving, ask your bank which account the mapper shows; it may have moved to a newer account seeded elsewhere.
For the phone side of NPCI's work, see UPI, wallets and Aadhaar. For fingerprint cash, see AEPS and micro-ATMs.
Sources
- National Payments Corporation of India, product overviews for APB, AEPS, UPI, IMPS and RuPay.
- Reserve Bank of India, Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, authorisations.