SME Times News Bureau | 11 Aug, 2017
State-run Canara
Bank on Thursday unveiled two new digital services for online payments.
"Bharat QR (Quick Response) is for payment settlement at merchant
locations and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment
system for net banking customers," the bank said in a statement.
The first service is a mobile application, which enables a merchant to accept
payments as settlement for sale of goods or services.
"Merchants enrolled by our bank will be allotted a QR code in line with
the Bharat QR code standards. As the solution is interoperable, customers of
any bank can make the payment using the mobile banking facility of their
bank," said the statement.
The service product rides on VISA/MasterCard/RuPay cards and holders need not
divulge card information to merchants.
"The facility is safe, secure and reliable. It is confined to domestic
cards and supplements/replaces Point of Sale machines," said bank's
Managing Director Rakesh Sharma.
The second product (BBPS), an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and
managed by the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI), offers bill payment
services to the bank's net banking customers with network of agents.
"We have already enabled 144 billers covering telephone, electricity, water,
gas supply, DTH (direct-to-home) and mobile networks among others. All billers
will be enabled through the system soon."
The bank is allowing its customers to pay the bills at zero cost.
"Though the solution is cost-effective, convenient, safe, secure and
regulated, a dispute management/grievance redressal mechanism has been built-in
in the system for the customers," the statement said.
The government has set a 25 billion digital transactions target by the end of
this fiscal year (2017-18) for all the banks across the country.