Canara Bank unveils two new digital services

State-run Canara Bank on Thursday unveiled two new digital services for online payments.

"Bharat QR (Quick Response) is for payment settlement at merchant locations and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment system for net banking customers," the bank said in a statement.

The first service is a mobile application, which enables a merchant to accept payments as settlement for sale of goods or services.

"Merchants enrolled by our bank will be allotted a QR code in line with the Bharat QR code standards. As the solution is interoperable, customers of any bank can make the payment using the mobile banking facility of their bank," said the statement.

The service product rides on VISA/MasterCard/RuPay cards and holders need not divulge card information to merchants.

"The facility is safe, secure and reliable. It is confined to domestic cards and supplements/replaces Point of Sale machines," said bank's Managing Director Rakesh Sharma.

The second product (BBPS), an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and managed by the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI), offers bill payment services to the bank's net banking customers with network of agents.

"We have already enabled 144 billers covering telephone, electricity, water, gas supply, DTH (direct-to-home) and mobile networks among others. All billers will be enabled through the system soon."

The bank is allowing its customers to pay the bills at zero cost.

"Though the solution is cost-effective, convenient, safe, secure and regulated, a dispute management/grievance redressal mechanism has been built-in in the system for the customers," the statement said.

The government has set a 25 billion digital transactions target by the end of this fiscal year (2017-18) for all the banks across the country.

--IANS

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