Payments,retail,Risk and Regulation,technology,Transaction Banking,

Payments,retail,Risk and Regulation,technology,Transaction Banking,

Private sector lenders HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank said they are live with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) that is aimed at easing utility and other repetitive bill payments for consumers.

The BBPS is a centralised system created by the National Payments Corporation, involving banks and non-banks and allows agents to access bill payments services in an interoperable manner, HDFC Bank said.

A customer can pay multiple bills from a single platform without the hassle of visiting multiple websites or issuing individual cheques, or also registering billers with her bank for standard instructions for debit.

"BBPS introduced by NPCI is a seamless payment platform that offers speed and convenience to pay all types of bills," HDFC Bank digital banking head Nitin Chugh said, adding the service will soon be made available for non-bank customers as well.

The bank has introduced the service on its net banking page at present and plans to offer it on mobile banking next.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's chief digital officer Deepak Sharma termed the BBPS as "an aggregator of bill aggregators" which will serve to be a game-changer in the payments landscape as hundreds of billers will get added.

At present, there are 124 billers whose payments can be made using the service, he said, adding KMB launched the service three weeks ago.

The NPCI has piloting the BBPS since the latter part of 2016, and now the focus will be on adding maximum amount of billers, Sharma said.

The billers may include energy utilities, telcos, DTH service providers, insurance companies etc.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker from The Economic Times