Most people don’t realize how much advanced the Indian Banking system is as compared to other countries. Last week EU adopted euro instant payments rules that would allow customers to transfer money within 10 seconds to any account both within the same country and to another EU member state. What is interesting is that this is being portrayed as a major breakthrough advance in Banking technology.
In India we have a service called Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), which is enables instant inter-bank electronic funds transfer in India. Funds transferred using IMPS are credited to the receiver within seconds and the service is available 24×7 throughout the year including bank holidays. This service was launched in 2010, i.e. over 13 years ago.
The UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is built on top of IMPS and that can be used to make payments/transfers to select countries outside India. List of countries where UPI can be used is available here.
I just find it amusing that something we have been using for over a decade is being portrayed as a breakthrough innovation outside India. Although, to be fair for good amount of time in 80’s & early 90’s things/systems which were common outside India were launched in India as an innovation. So I guess life is a cycle.
Source: Reuters: EU adopts euro instant payments rules to take on Visa, Mastercard