Mumbai: IDFC FIRST Bank, is set to be a part of RBI’s pilot project to enable offline payments. This project will give access to digital payments even when there is no network.
This unique digital payment solution was designed by the Swedish company Crunchfish for merchants and customers under the RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox Program. The project will provide support for offline retail payments based on a Digital Cash platform to the payment ecosystem of India. IDFC FIRST Bank will be one of the first few banks to be a part of this pilot project by HDFC Bank. The application was approved by RBI to demonstrate offline payments between two banks.
The Development and Demonstration Agreement which is a non-commercial agreement has now been signed to give IDFC First Bank access to the Digital Cash SDK. Commercial terms for deployment will be regulated in a Software License Agreement.
IDFC FIRST Bank believes in providing customer-first products and being a part of this pilot project only resonates with the Bank’s ethos. This solution will open up more customer base and regions for adoption of cashless digital payments.
Madhivanan Balakrishnan, COO, of IDFC FIRST Bank said ‘This application will help make
transactions easier for customers. Being a part of this pilot project and enabling a unique
offering for customers is something that is aligned with the Bank’s philosophy’.
‘Signing an agreement and adding IDFC FIRST Bank to the RBI pilot project is very
satisfying, as it together with HDFC Bank enables to showcase offline payment
interoperability. Interoperability between banks will be key for the adoption and success of
the offline retail payments solution we develop together with the two banks and will
showcase to RBI’;, says Joachim Samuelsson, Crunchfish’s CEO.
The Regulatory Sandbox was established in 2020 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefits to end users. The Regulatory Sandbox is a formal regulatory program for market participants to test new products and services with customers in a live environment, subject to certain safeguards and oversight. It allows the regulator, innovators, financial service providers and end users to conduct field tests to collect evidence on the benefits of new financial innovations, while carefully monitoring and containing their risks.
To be approved access to the Regulatory Sandbox, the proposed financial service will include new or emerging technology, or the use of existing technology in an innovative way and should address a problem and bring benefits to consumers.
