IDFC First Bank partners Crunchfish to demonstrate offline retail payments

IDFC First Bank on Monday said it has partnered with Swedish company Crunchfish to pilot a project to demonstrate offline retail payments.

IDFC First Bank, is set to be a part of RBI's pilot project to enable offline payments, the private sector lender said, adding that the project will give access to digital payments even when there is no network.

The unique digital payment solution was designed by Crunchfish for merchants and customers under the RBI's Regulatory Sandbox Program, IDFC First Bank said in a release.

"This project will provide support for offline retail payments based on a Digital Cash platform to the payment ecosystem of India. IDFC FIRST Bank will be one of the first few banks to be a part of this pilot project by HDFC Bank," it said.

The application was approved by the RBI to demonstrate offline payments between two banks. The Development and Demonstration Agreement which is a non-commercial agreement has now been signed to give IDFC First Bank access to the Digital Cash SDK. Commercial terms for deployment will be regulated in a Software License Agreement.

"This application will help make transactions easier for customers. Being a part of this pilot project and enabling a unique offering for customers is something that is aligned with the Bank's philosophy," said Madhivanan Balakrishnan, COO, of IDFC FIRST Bank.

The Regulatory Sandbox was established in 2020 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefits to end users.

"Signing an agreement and adding IDFC FIRST Bank to the RBI pilot project is very satisfying, as it together with HDFC Bank enables to showcase offline payment interoperability.

"Interoperability between banks will be key for the adoption and success of the offline retail payments solution we develop together with the two banks and will showcase to RBI," Crunchfish CEO Joachim Samuelsson said.

IDFC First Bank was formed by the merger of erstwhile IDFC Bank and Capital First. The bank has expanded to 707 branches, 253 asset service centres, 867 ATMs and 578 rural business correspondents.