Indian Banks To Use Blockchain For More Efficient Payment Services

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is considering using cutting-edge blockchain technology to further improve its payment services, local media outlet Business Today reports. Indian banks believe that scalable blockchain solutions will boost digital transactions and help NPCI to become the “best payments network globally.”

India and Blockchain: A Significant Match

The move should be considered rather significant since NPCI is an umbrella body for all retail payments and settlement systems in India. It was created with the support of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) — and its shareholders currently include 56 local banks. The initiative has been promoted by 10 Indian banks under the patronage of IBA. Its goal is to improve the NPCI’s efficiency by implementing increasingly popular distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) — which were popularized by Bitcoin (BTC). “NPCI intends to develop a resilient, real-time and highly scalable blockchain solution,” the report explains. NPCI has already issued an Express of Interest to find prospect developers able to build the respective technologies in the NPCI payment domain. Banks hope that the blockchain’s fast speed, transparency, traceability, and automation will boost digital transactions within the payment network and make it the world’s best.

India Holding

Recently, the Indian government has adopted a rather restrictive stance towards digital assets. Yet, the country does not want to give up on them. According to a survey conducted by global consultancy firm PwC, India could emerge as one of the global leaders in DLT adoption by 2023. Immense public interest in cryptocurrencies confirms this trend. However, it will also require the right amount of governmental and regulatory support. It’s also worth mentioning that India is a BRICS member. This block brings together driving forces of the global economy — like Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Last summer, major banks from each BRICS member signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the DLT development. The aim of this move was to foster their digital economies’ growth and promote blockchain technology. Do you believe that the NPCI initiative might help blockchain go mainstream? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!