NPCI incorporates NPCI BHIM Services Ltd as a wholly-owned subsidiary

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Tuesday incorporated Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) as a wholly-owned subsidiary, hiving it off into a new entity known as NPCI-BHIM Services Ltd (NBSL).

Former banker Lalitha Nataraj will head the new subsidiary as its chief executive officer (CEO). Nataraj has previously worked with IDFC FIRST Bank and ICICI Bank.

Rahul Handa will be NBSL’s chief business officer (CBO). At BHIM too, Handa worked in the capacity of a CBO. In his previous role, he was the executive vice president at the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

Business Standard reported on Monday that the BHIM application is undergoing a revamp.

“This development aims to meet the growing demand for digital transactions and evolving market expectations, while keeping pace with innovation and rapidly shifting customer preferences. Additionally, it aims to promote financial inclusion,” NPCI said in a statement.

The incorporation of NBSL comes at a time when NPCI is addressing the challenge of a duopoly in India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) market.

Currently, PhonePe and Google Pay together process around 85 per cent of UPI volumes in India, raising concerns about a duopoly in the industry.

In June, PhonePe and Google Pay processed 6.7 billion and 5.1 billion transactions, respectively. In comparison, the BHIM app handled just 22.72 million UPI transactions, which is only a 0.16 per cent share of the payment volumes.

With the new subsidiary, the retail payments regulator may be looking to expand the presence of BHIM in the UPI market.

This is not the first time NPCI has decided to transfer its business to a new subsidiary.

In 2021, it transferred Bharat Bill Payment System transaction mandates to a new subsidiary called NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd, hiving off its automated bill payment business from the umbrella body.

NBBL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPCI. The same year, NPCI appointed former PayU and Airtel Payments Bank executive Noopur Chaturvedi as the CEO of NBBL.