In order to give a push to mobile banking services, the Reserve Bank of India has now allowed money transfers from ATM to a mobile account.
While the modalities and procedures for doing so will be announced soon by The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The move will certainly provide fillip to the ecosystem which is growing at very slow pace.
Currently, to make mobile money transfers, a person has to register with the bank for this service after which he/she is eligible to make use of this service. The bank then issues the applicant a seven-digit Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) number and Mobile Personal Identification Number (MPIN). The MMID is linked to the beneficiary’s bank account and mobile number.
After that to make a transaction, users need to enter the beneficiary’s MMID or mobile number followed by their MPIN and in the event of transaction getting complete successfully a SMS confirming the completion of the same is sent to both the beneficiary and the sender’s mobile phones.
RBI has put a limit of Rs 50,000 maximum for a day. These transactions include transferring for funds using the IMPS (Interbank Mobile Payment Service) channel of the concerned banks.
All these transaction will be done under the mobile payment systems already introduced in India with the Reserve Bank of India Mobile Payment Guidelines 2008 which states mobile devices to be inter-operable across banks and mobile operators in a safe and secured manner.
The benefit of this service is that unlike NEFT (e-banking transfers) transfers which doesn’t happen after the bank gets closed or on holidays, the mobile transactions happen instantly on all days of the year, 24 hours a day.