Indian banks look for ways to implement blockchain for payments

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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is thinking of implementing blockchain technology with its digital payments system to help it become “the best payments network globally.”

According to Business Today, an Indian business magazine, ten banks operating under the Indian Bank’s Association (IBA) will use blockchain to improve the NPCI.

The NPCI will focus on developing blockchain tech in the payment domain for boosting digital transactions. The article states:

 “NPCI intends to develop a resilient, real-time and highly scalable blockchain solution. It is proposed to develop this solution using an open source technology/ framework/solution,”

The NPCI is an umbrella organization that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India. NPCI was established under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India and Indian Bank Association (IBA). It has over 50 national banks as its stakeholders.

Industries have been trying to implement blockchain in many different uses. In the last couple of months, banks around the world have also been trying to use blockchain technology solutions to improve their services and products. Major companies like Ripple have been working with financial institutions around the world to enhance the remittance industry and to make cross-border payments more efficient.

In June, Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group, said in an interview at the Money 2020 fintech conference in Amsterdam, that banks are on their feet, developing their solutions. He added that blockchain could be “forced” as the standard for global banking. During the same conference, Carlos Torres, the CEO at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) stated:

“We believe there is great promise in blockchain technology. It is early times in this technology, but it can bring about more efficient processes,” Vila said, reiterating that he is optimistic about it. “I am, I think it does have that promise and I think that timeframe should be about right… but we will see how it develops.”

Last July, five significant banks from the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the development of distributed ledger technology for enhancing the digital economy.