State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank have been adjudged winners in public sector, private sector and cooperative sector banking respectively in the annual National Financial Switch (NFS) operational excellence award function. The awards are presented annually by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which connects all 1.40 lakh ATMs of the country. The award recognises member banks that perform the best in terms of up-time availability, service delivery ratio, customer complaint resolution and usage level of ATMs by the customers.
Aadhar Payment Bridge System
Meanwhile, NPCI said payments made through Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (APBS) of NPCI reached a new milestone with the total number of transactions made during the month of December 2013 crossing 1 crore mark. Bulk of these transactions pertains to Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG subsidy. This has proved beyond doubt that Aadhaar number can also be the financial address for making remittances by just indicating the Aadhaar number similar to reaching a person through mobile phone. The Aadhaar Mapper located at NPCI has close to 5 crore Aadhaar numbers mapped to various banks and government departments make payments to about 5 lakh beneficiaries each day using just the Aadhaar number as the address. “NPCI plans to roll out various payment and authentication services based on Aadhaar during the year 2013,” said A.P. Hota, MD & CEO of NPCI. “The target is to reach 10 crore Aadhaar-based transactions a month by December 2014,” he added.
