when was aeps launched in india?

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In India, AEPS first started in November 2010.

AEPS is very simple to use. The steps listed below must be followed:

Step 1: Visit an ATM or a banking representative.

Step 2: In the PoS Machine, enter your 12-digit Aadhaar number and bank account number.

Step 3: Choose a transaction type (cash deposit, mini statement, withdrawal, balance enquiry, fund transfer), i.e., decide on the type of transaction you'd like to conduct.

Step 4: Enter the transaction's amount. Give your biometric information to verify your transaction (iris scan or fingerprint).

Step 5: In a few seconds, the transaction will be completed. You can collect your receipt from the ATM or bank correspondent.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issues Aadhaar numbers to Indians to provide a variety of benefits. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has provided the AEPS apps and payment services to banks and financial institutions that use 'Aadhaar' for their KYC (Know-Your-Customer).

Citizens or customers can use their Aadhaar number to conduct financial and banking transactions at C2B, C2G points and undertake a variety of tasks, including:

Customers can receive an easy access to ATMs while maintaining the security of a traditional banking or financial institution. For biometric verification, AEPS services and systems use fingerprint/IRIS scans, assuring excellent security for each transaction.

Also Read: All About UPI– United Payments Interface

The following are the services AEPS provides:

The main goals of AEPS are listed below.

The AEPS machine functions similarly to a POS machine. Instead of a debit/credit card pin, the retailer will need to enter the customer's Aadhaar number and use the customer's biometric data to confirm the transaction. You will require the following forms to carry out an AEPS transaction: Aadhar number, Fingerprint and Bank’s Issuer Identification Number (IIN) or name.

Stepwise procedure:

Step 1: The customer must first provide their Aadhar number, fingerprint data, and financial transaction information via a micro-ATM.

Step 2: After that, the digital data, which will be encrypted, will be transferred to the UIDAI using a 'Bank Switch.'

Step 3: The UIDAI will verify and validate the data, and the result will be reflected as a YES/NO answer. Step 4: If the answer is "YES," the bank will begin the required authorisation process.

• Ease of use

• Safe and secure payment mechanism

• Interoperability between banks

• Encourages financial inclusion and serves the underbanked

• All bank account holders would access their accounts using Aadhaar authentication through AEPS.

• AEPS simplifies payments of government schemes such as NREGA, Social Security pension, Handicapped Old Age Pension, and others by requiring only the Aadhaar number and biometric details to commence a transaction.

The Indian government has set a goal of integrating all residents into the financial system. However, opening bank branches in distant settlements is not a viable option. As a result, the Indian government has devised the AEPS concept, which allows individuals from remote locations to easily access the banking system by allowing them to send and receive money and use micro-ATMs and banking correspondents to access a variety of financial and non-financial banking services.

The benefit of implementing AEPS is that all transactions will require biometric authentication, which can be either a fingerprint scan or an iris scan. Individual signatures can be falsified, but neither the iris scan nor the fingerprints can be forged, making transactions safer. For fund transfers, people do not need to carry their passbook or debit card; all they need is their unique Aadhaar number and fingerprint.

The National Payments Corporation of India is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India. It was created by RBI for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.

Founded in December 2008, the NPCI is a not-for-profit organisation registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, established by the Reserve Bank of India and Indian Banks' Association. The organisation is owned by a consortium of major banks, and has been promoted by the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India. The NPCI was incorporated in December 2008 and the Certificate of Commencement of Business was issued in April 2009. The authorised capital has been pegged at ₹3 billion (US$38 million) and paid-up capital is ₹1 billion (US$13 million).

Initially, there were ten promoter banks viz. State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and HSBC. In 2016, the shareholding was diluted to include 13 additional public sector banks, 15 additional private sector banks, 1 additional foreign bank, 10 multi-state co-operative banks and 7 regional rural banks. The Board consists of Biswamohan Mahapatra as the Non Executive Chairman, Nominees from the Reserve Bank of India and Nominees from ten core promoter banks. Dilip Asbe is the current managing director and chief executive officer of the NPCI after A. P. Hota, who retired from the post on 10 August 2017.

NPCI has created a separate subsidiary to take its product to global market. The organization is getting offers from nations around Asia, Africa and the Middle East to improve their payment infrastructure. Internationalization of RuPay and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are the primary focus of the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL).

In 2021, Malaysian company Merchantrade Asia partnered with NIPL to send remittance in India through UPI infrastructure.

From April 2021, NPCI created a new subsidiary for Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to increase growth especially in business to consumer segment for small businesses. This is done in view of growing traffic and workload from UPI, IMPS, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System and National Electronic Toll Collections. NBBL is a public company registered in December 2020.

The corporation's current and future service portfolio includes:

A network of Micro ATMs using Aadhaar authentication. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced the transactions of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) for the month of July 2019 have crossed the milestone number of 200 million. AePS is a bank-led model which allows basic interoperable banking transactions at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank by using Aadhaar authentication.

The Bharat Bill Payment System is a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conceptualised system driven by the NPCI. It is a one-stop ecosystem for payment of all bills, providing an interoperable and accessible "Anytime Anywhere" bill payment service to all customers across India with certainty, reliability and safety. Bharat BillPay has multiple modes of payment and provides instant confirmation of payment via an SMS or receipt. It offers myriad bill collection categories like electricity, telecom, DTH, gas, water bills etc. through a single window. More categories may be added in the future, to include insurance premium, mutual funds, school fees, institution fees, credit cards, local taxes, invoice payments, etc. An effective mechanism for handling consumer complaints has also been put in place. Bharat BillPay transactions can be initiated through multiple payment channels like Internet, Internet Banking, Mobile, Mobile-Banking, POS (Point of Sale terminal), Mobile Wallets, MPOS (Mobile Point of Sale terminal), Kiosk, ATM, Bank Branch, Agents and Business Correspondents. Bharat BillPay supports multiple payment modes. This includes Cards (Credit, Debit and Prepaid), NEFT Internet Banking, UPI, Wallets, Aadhaar based Payments and Cash.

A common QR code developed by NPCI in collaboration with American Express, Mastercard and Visa for ease of payments and interoperability.

BHIM is a mobile app to act as Client software for the Unified Payments Interface.

BHIM Aadhaar pay is an Aadhaar based payments interface which allows real time payments to Merchants using Aadhaar number of Customer & authenticating them through their biometrics.

CTS is based on a cheque truncation or online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) data are captured at the collecting bank branch and transmitted electronically.

The Digital Rupee (e₹) or eINR or E-Rupee is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Digital Rupee was proposed in January 2017 and will be launched in the 2022-23 financial year. The plan is to incorporate distributed ledger into Digital Rupee.

Like banknotes it will be uniquely identifiable and regulated by Central Bank. Liability lies with RBI. Plans include online and offline accessibility. RBI will launch Digital Rupee for Wholesale (e₹-W) catering to financial institutions for interbank settlements and Digital Rupee for Retail (e₹-R) for consumer and business transactions. CBDC will remove ₹4,984.80 crore security printing cost borne by the general public, businesses, banks, and RBI on physical currency.

Immediate Payment Service is a real time inter bank payment system.

A centralised clearing service that aims at providing interbank high volume, low value transactions that are repetitive and periodic in nature.

Rupay Contactless is a contactless payment technology that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contactless payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device.

FASTag is a device that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly while the vehicle is in motion. FASTag (RFID Tag) is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle and enables a customer to make the toll payments directly from the account which is linked to FASTag. The latest version 2.0 can also be used to buy fuel. IDFC First Bank has become the first one to get an approval from the RBI. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has declared that all lanes at all toll plazas on national highways across the country will be dedicated Fastag lanes from 1, December 2019.

Network of shared automated teller machines in India.

RuPay is a domestic card scheme of India. The card has Magnetic stripe (for Backward compatibility) and an EMV chip. The RuPay card is now accepted at all ATMs, Point-of-Sale terminals and most online merchants in the country. More than 300 cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in the country have also issued RuPay ATM cards.

Unified Payments Interface is a real-time interbank payment system for sending or receiving money. It is integrated with more than 358 banks in India. Consumers can participate in P2P transfer as long as they both have an account in one of the registered banks. To initiate fund transfer, users have to use any UPI supporting Android or iOS app, link their bank accounts and generate BHIM UPI PIN. Funds can be transferred via the following methods:

Once the fund transfer is initiated, money is debited from payer's bank account and deposited in the recipient's bank account in real-time. This system works 24x7, including weekends and bank holidays.

An USSD channel service for UPI mobile banking launched in November 2012. Only public sector telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited MTNL are offering this service. It uses quick codes for transactions and doesn't require smartphone and access to internet. The interface is developed by National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) to overcome the problem of poor internet connectivity in rural areas with 12 regional languages. This service is being currently offered by 51 banks. BHIM app also supports USSD features. Understanding the importance of mobile banking in financial inclusion in general and of *99# in particular, various regulatory/trade bodies came together to ensure on boarding of all TSPs on *99# (USSD 1.0). With the wider ecosystem (11 TSPs), *99# was launched by Prime minister Narendra Modi on 28 August 2014, as part of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna.

It a 3-step method to initiate and execute UPI services for feature phone users without the use of internet connection or USSD channel. It is based on Interactive voice response (IVR) technology which is good specially for rural areas. It is launched by RBI on 10 March 2022.

The Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT and Law & Justice Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad today announced the rollout of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) Services by India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), giving a strong boost to its efforts in expanding access to financial services for millions of unbanked and underbanked customers. Speaking at the First Anniversary Celebrations of IPPB here, the Minister congratulated IPPB for achieving the milestone of 1 Crore customers and exhorted them to achieve 5 crore target in next one year. Referring to 440 Central schemes on-boarded to the DBT platform, Shri Prasad said that all these schemes must ride on IPPB platform too. He said, ‘Inclusive’ is the key mantra of the government and the department of Posts should strive for Banking the unbanked, funding the unfunded and securing the unsecured.

With the launch of AEPS services, IPPB has now become the single largest platform in the country for providing interoperable banking services to the customers of ANY BANK by leveraging the last mile unprecedented reach of the Postal network.

IPPB’s unparalleled network complimented with robust interoperable technology platform set up by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is poised to take banking to each & every household across the remotest parts of the country. With AePS services any common person with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can perform basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with. To avail these services, a customer with an Aadhaar linked account can simply authenticate his/her identity with fingerprint scan & Aadhaar authentication to complete a transaction. AePS services are bank-agnostic and are driven by an inexpensive infrastructure enabling low cost delivery of doorstep banking services to every section of the society without discrimination, thus bringing forth the dawn of a ‘Truly Inclusive Financial System’.

Speaking about the launch of AePS services, Shri Prasad said, “As the biggest Financial Inclusion initiative in the world, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana brought millions into the economic mainstream. There are over 34 crore Jan Dhan accounts out of which 22 crore account holders are in rural India. With IPPB’s AePS Services, we now have the ability to provide Interoperable Doorstep banking services to customers of ANY BANK including the 34 crore Jan Dhan account holders, by leveraging the unprecedented last mile reach of IPPB. This fulfills the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision set forth at the time of launch of IPPB last year of ushering in economic transformation by bringing banks to the doorsteps of the villagers and poor. I wish IPPB and its management all the success in its future growth journey.”

Shri. A.N. Nanda, Secretary, Department of Posts said, “It has been our belief that financial and banking services have a transformational impact on the lives of people and communities. For a significant majority of these people, the Postman and Grameen Dak Sevak (GDS) are the most important channel for delivery of various financial services at the last mile, making India Post Payments Bank the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for them. The launch of AePS by India Post Payments Bank enhances the last mile interoperable banking infrastructure by 2.5 times. The network brings doorstep banking access to millions of underbanked customers and gives a fresh impetus to inclusion of customers facing accessibility challenges in the traditional banking ecosystem.”

Shri Suresh Sethi, Managing Director & CEO, India Post Payments Bank said, “With the launch of AePS services, IPPB has now become the single largest interoperable platform in the country. By leveraging AePS customers can now access their accounts with ANY BANK by simply using their fingerprint for cash withdrawal and balance enquiry right at their doorstep through the Postmen and GDS. IPPB’s services are now available across more than 136,000 Post Offices and delivered by over 195,000 Postmen and GDSs. The ability of the Postmen and GDS to reach every village on an almost daily basis has brought down the distance to access banking services to ‘0 kms', truly capturing the essence of Aapka Bank, Aapke Dwaar.”

About India Post Payments Bank

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by Government of India. IPPB was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on September 1, 2018. The bank has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India. The fundamental mandate of India Post Payments Bank is to remove barriers for the unbanked & underbanked and reach the last mile leveraging the Postal network comprising 155,000 Post Offices (135,000 in rural areas) and 300,000 Postal employees.

IPPB’s reach and its operating model is built on the key pillars of India Stack - enabling Paperless, Cashless and Presence-less banking in a simple and secure manner at the customers' doorstep, through a CBS-integrated smartphone and biometric device. Leveraging frugal innovation and with a high focus on ease of banking for the masses, IPPB delivers simple and affordable banking solutions through intuitive interfaces available in 13 languages.

IPPB is committed to provide a fillip to a less cash economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India. India will prosper when every citizen will have equal opportunity to become financially secure and empowered. Our motto stands true - Every customer is important, every transaction is significant and every deposit is valuable.

For more information, please visit www.ippbonline.com

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The pilot for AePS was launched in 2011 by NPCI .