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Real-time retail payments system or faster payments: Implementation considerations
Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems,
14
(1),
48-60
(2020)
Abstract
Real-time retail payments systems — otherwise known as low-value real-time retail payments, faster payments or immediate payments — are gaining momentum. This paper describes a framework to help countries, particularly developing countries, decide whether or not to implement such systems, and if so, the key considerations, such as settlement options, message formats, third-party access etc, would be very helpful for these countries.
Keywords: faster payments; real-time retail payments; framework for realtime retail payments; RTRPS readiness index; decision tree; settlement options; messaging standards; APIs
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Harish Natarajan is a lead financial sector specialist in the World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice. He leads a global team working on payments and market infrastructures topics. He is a core member of the World Bank’s cross-sectoral teams working on financial inclusion, ID for development, government payments, digital economy and FinTech. Harish is also a member of a number of working groups, including ones convened by the Bank for International Settlements Committee on Payment Market Infrastructures, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions and the Financial Stability Board on topics related to payments, market infrastructures and FinTech.
Mahadevan Balakrishnan is currently with the Payment System Development Group, World Bank, helping multiple developing nations improve their financial market infrastructure. Prior to that he was Chief Operating Officer of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), responsible for Business, Operations and Technology. In that role he was involved in the creation of multiple retail payment infrastructures for the country, covering NFS ATM Network, the Immediate Payment System (IMPS), ACH, cheque truncation systems, the automation of 1000+ clearing houses in India with a standard solution, AADHAAR-based payment ecosystems for direct benefit transfer schemes, and the RUPAY domestic cards scheme, thus helping NPCI deliver its vision of simple, easy, convenient and cost-effective retail payment systems for all Indians. The systems he helped create in India facilitated the PMJDY financial inclusion schemes and the Direct Benefits Transfer to Bank Accounts schemes, saving India billions of Rupees. He has over 25 years of banking/technology leadership/ management experience with leading banks such as ABN AMRO Bank, Barclays and Citibank, and he was also involved in the implementation of some of the payment systems for these banks. He is a postgraduate in Business Administration (MBA) and in Bank Management (MBM), and has a Doctorate (PhD) in Financial Management/Payments. He has published several papers relating to payment systems in national and international journals.
