RBI may allow interoperability among biz correspondents: Deputy Gov Khan

That convergence will provide efficiency and optimisation, he said

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is exploring the possibility of allowing the business correspondent (BC) of a particular bank to get involved in offering payment services of other banks.

“We are now talking whether a particular BC of a particular bank can do the payment services of the other bank..... That convergence will provide efficiency and optimisation,” said H R Khan, deputy governor at RBI.

The other area in which RBI is focusing in a big way is mobile banking. “This assumes criticality in the context of Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana because focus is on “Jan” so Jan Dhan accounts and mobile with Aadhar backup has to be the solution going forward otherwise you can’t service this 120 million accounts,” Khan said.

Jan Dhan Yojana is a scheme for comprehensive financial inclusion launched by Prime Minister Minister Narendra Modi in August 2014.

Besides, Khan believes there is a huge market for bill payments. “We have this Bharat Bill Payment System. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is going to be the central operating unit and other bill aggregators and banks will join. We hope that in less than a year’s time we should be up and running,” he said.

To help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), RBI in December 2014 permitted setting up of an exchange-based trading platform to facilitate financing of bills raised by such small entities to corporate and other buyers, including government departments and PSUs. “We have received seven applications and we are processing it,” Khan said.

According to Khan, the biggest game changer possibly will be bringing telcos and banks together. “That possibly will happen in a big way once payments bank licences are issued. They are going to be a big game changer in the field of remittances and payment system,” he said.

RBI is also working on a proposal submitted by NPCI to connect all cash deposit machines through the national financial switch. This will make these machines inter-operable and allow a customer of a particular bank to deposit cash into his/her account from any bank’s machine.

Khan also said that through core banking solution e-Kuber, the central bank is in the process of integrating the state and the central governments’ receipts and payments.

He also believes that India is set for a big achievement in terms of digital revolution. “Digital banking has to be one of the main elements of the digital India plan that the government is driving,” he said.