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(ii) RuPay, being a domestic initiatives, it offers development of customized
product and service for Indian consumers.
(iii) Transaction and customer data related to RuPay card transactions will
reside in India.
(iv) There are under-penetrated/untapped consumers segments in rural areas
that do not have access to banking and financial services. Right pricing of
RuPay products makes the RuPay cards more economically feasible for
banks to offer to their customers.
(v) RuPay card is uniquely positioned to offer complete inter-operability
between various payments channels and products. NPCI currently offers
varied solutions across platforms including ATMs, mobile technology,
cheques, etc. and is extremely well placed in nurturing RuPay cards across
these platforms.
I(a) National Financial Switch (NFS) Membership
:
4.5 NPCI has developed a hassle free and transparent process for NFS membership
for all banks. Irrespective of the bank type and size, the process remains
the same along with the membership fee. For banks willing to become direct
members with NPCI NFS switch, there is one time fee of Rs. 300,000. Largely
direct membership is required by public sector, private sector, foreign banks or
banks which have or plan to have a large network of branches or ATMs in near
future.
4.6 To achieve the objectives of financial inclusion, NPCI has facilitated a sub
membership model for smaller cooperatives (State Cooperative, District
Cooperative, Regional Rural Banks) where they can use NFS infrastructure under
sub membership with a direct member bank with NPCI. The direct member bank
acts as a sponsor bank for the smaller bank, and the latter is identified as a sub
member bank in NPCIs system. There is no sub-membership fee which is charged
by NPCI. There is only a certification charge of Rs. 75000 for sub member bank
and all other banks (direct members, RRBS, white label ATMs, SBI Associates)
as and when they approach NPCI to get certified on various products like ATM,
POS, Ecom, EMV. The number of members/ sub-members is given in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1: The number of members/ sub-members as of March 2016
Membership Type
No of Banks
ATM Branches on NFS
Direct Member
96
204904
Sub Member Banks
461
2122
RRBs
56
924
White Label ATMs
7
12962
I(b) Cost Per Transaction
:
4.7 The cost per transaction for RuPay usage is the lowest in the country offered by
NPCI as compared to other cards (Master card/ Visa). The ATM/ Micro-ATM charges
are as under:
