The need of the hour, therefore, is that the banks and the mobile operators reach a workable understanding while protecting their mutual interests. Such an approach would result in a “win-win” situation for both and, more importantly, serve the larger cause of public good of financial inclusion.
The Inter Bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS), an instantaneous 24x7 electronic funds transfer system has been developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). Despite tremendous potential of the product, the volumes are low, probably due to the reluctance of the telecom companies to offer the common Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform.