IDFC FIRST Bank has announced it will be one of the first banks to take part in Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) pilot project to enable offline payments. It follows RBI’s approval of its application to demonstrate offline payments between two banks, IDFC FIRST said.
The banks involved will use a Digital Cash platform to send offline retail payments to the payment ecosystem of India. The platform has been designed by Swedish company Crunchfish for merchants and customers under the RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox Programme.
In a statement, IDFC First Bank said it expected the initiative to widen its customer base and regions for adoption of cashless digital payments.
“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,” its chief operating officer, Madhivanan Balakrishnan said.
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 benefit to end users.
It is a formal regulatory programme that offers market participants the chance to test new products and services with customers in a live environment, but with certain safeguards in place. This includes the regulator, innovators, financial service providers and end users, all of whom can conduct field tests to collect evidence on the benefits of new financial innovations.
Joachim Samuelsson, Crunchfish’s CEO added: “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.”
