Indian firm Yalamanchili (Ramakrishna Yalamanchili, founder and CEO) , a provider of software and white-label acquiring solutions, has been selected as processing provider for Saral Money, India's recently launched national electronic payment service.
The Saral Money project is a universal financial inclusion effort involving five major Indian Banks, Visa, and the Unique Identification Authority of India. FIs in the project include Axis Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, ITZ Cash (HDFC Bank) and State Bank of India.
Saral Money is based on the Visa Instant Account — essentially a reloadable prepaid card — and is aimed at India's unbanked. The initiative combines Visa's advanced network technology, the government's reach and the banks' extensive facilities to provide millions of Indians with a financial identity, said an announcement from Yalamanchili.
The system will initially roll out in limited regions, where it will support cash transfers for subsidies, scholarships and other government disbursements. These disbursements will go to the Saral cardholder's account, which is linked to the user's identification number — known as an Aadhaar — issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India. To prevent fraud, the cardholder will be authenticated by means of a biometric fingerprint reader.
For the user who receives government disbursements direct to a Saral Money card linked to an Aadhaar number, the system means the ability to send funds, make purchases at POS terminals, and conduct transactions at ATMs across the country. For the government, the system means improved transparency and efficiency and a step forward in the country's electronic payment and financial inclusion agenda.
Yalamanchili technology will process all transactions made via Saral Money accounts for the banks and will provide a coordinated infrastructure to support the Visa and government initiative.
"Thanks to the versatility of the underlying technologies, this initiative is able to cut through the historical red tape and open up the banking system to millions of citizens across the country," said Ramakrishna Yalamanchili, founder and CEO of Yalamanchili. "We are proud to provide a flexible and robust next generation payments platform, which is able to support government disbursements on a massive scale."
The Saral Money project is a universal financial inclusion effort involving five major Indian Banks, Visa, and the Unique Identification Authority of India. FIs in the project include Axis Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, ITZ Cash (HDFC Bank) and State Bank of India.
Saral Money is based on the Visa Instant Account — essentially a reloadable prepaid card — and is aimed at India's unbanked. The initiative combines Visa's advanced network technology, the government's reach and the banks' extensive facilities to provide millions of Indians with a financial identity, said an announcement from Yalamanchili.
The system will initially roll out in limited regions, where it will support cash transfers for subsidies, scholarships and other government disbursements. These disbursements will go to the Saral cardholder's account, which is linked to the user's identification number — known as an Aadhaar — issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India. To prevent fraud, the cardholder will be authenticated by means of a biometric fingerprint reader.
For the user who receives government disbursements direct to a Saral Money card linked to an Aadhaar number, the system means the ability to send funds, make purchases at POS terminals, and conduct transactions at ATMs across the country. For the government, the system means improved transparency and efficiency and a step forward in the country's electronic payment and financial inclusion agenda.
Yalamanchili technology will process all transactions made via Saral Money accounts for the banks and will provide a coordinated infrastructure to support the Visa and government initiative.
"Thanks to the versatility of the underlying technologies, this initiative is able to cut through the historical red tape and open up the banking system to millions of citizens across the country," said Ramakrishna Yalamanchili, founder and CEO of Yalamanchili. "We are proud to provide a flexible and robust next generation payments platform, which is able to support government disbursements on a massive scale."
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