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MUMBAI: IDFC Aadhaar Pay, India’s first Aadhaar-linked cashless merchant solution, was officially launched today, following pilots across 16 states.
IDFC has said in the press release that in the pilot phase, spanning three months, over 1500 merchants have enabled digital transactions for customers of all banks, using IDFC Aadhaar Pay on their smartphones.
Customers without a phone, or having a feature phone, in the cities as well as the hinterland, have made cashless payments using their fingerprint as a digital identity.
The Aadhaar-linked interoperable banking software application was launched by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog and Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, in the presence of senior government officials in New Delhi.
The application was developed by IDFC Bank under the guidance of the Ministry of IT, NITI Aayog, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Dr. Rajiv Lall, Founder MD & CEO, IDFC Bank, said, “IDFC Aadhaar Pay proves that technology can revolutionise last mile payments. By using the fingerprint as digital identity, it empowers even individuals without a phone to pay electronically for small value transactions. The convenience of Aadhaar Pay is expected to encourage a behavioural shift towards digital payments.”
The Bank is targeting a reach of 50,000 – 75,000 merchants in the next two years. These will be IDFC Bank’s extended points-of-presence. Mobile payments are fundamental to the spread of cashless payments in the country.
As IDFC Aadhaar Pay rides on the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile), it is considered to be a game changer in the financial ecosystem.
It effectively does away with barriers to digital transacting i.e. it can be used by individuals without a phone, debit card, password or signature.
IDFC Aadhaar Pay first went live at a fair price shop in Andhra Pradesh in December 2016, and was subsequently introduced to merchants in Delhi and Bihar.