set out therein have been accomplished. the vision of rbi is to ensure that all ‘ payments and settlement systems in the country are safe, efficient, interoperable, authorised, accessible, inclusive and compliant with international standards ”. as i mentioned earlier, a sound and efficient payment system is a pre - requisite for a stable financial system and with the increasing volume and value of transactions, central banks can ill - afford to ignore payment systems. rbi has also initiated the process of setting up of payment banks to further financial inclusion. role of npci 9. you would have gone into the details of the role of npci in the sessions during the course of this conference. since, i had the distinction of serving on the board of npci for some time, i would briefly say a few words on the role and achievements of npci. it was set up with an objective of ensuring pan - india payment systems with uniform business processes and standards and has already created an enabling eco system necessary for handling this huge task. some of the achievements of npci which have significantly altered the retail payments landscape in the country are as under : • the national financial switch ( nfs ), a vast network of atms, has enhanced accessibility to cash withdrawal and other basic banking facilities for customers, besides facilitating value added services such as bill payments. • cheque truncation system ( cts ) – it has been rolled out successfully in three grid locations across the country covering over 85 % of cheque volume processed. npci has now begun to facilitate the repository of images of cheques processed in cts. • immediate payment service ( imps ) which started in october 2010 as an inter - bank mobile payment system has, over the years, transformed into a multi - channel 24x7 remittance platform in the country, accessible through net banking, mobile banking, at bc point, at branches as well as at atms. • rupay – the domestic card system which was launched in 2011 has slowly gained popularity and with its linkage under the jan dhanyojana has become a household name. • aadhaar based payments, through linkage of biometric identifier with bank accounts, is facilitating the benefit payments to bank accounts of millions of beneficiaries, and will have significant on financial inclusion efforts in the country. • national unified ussd platform ( nuup ) – the setting up of national unified ussd platform for providing an interoperable ussd based mobile

with an aim of technological upgradation and development of a reliable communication network • introduction of electronic clearing service and electronic funds transfer in the 1990s • permitting issuance of credit and debit cards by the banks in 1990s • interconnectivity of atms across the country by introducing the national financial switch in 2003 • following the improvement in the information technology and introduction of cbs by banks, rtgs and neft introduced by rbi in 2004 • introduction of cheque truncation system ( february 2008 ) and new rtgs with enhanced features ( october 2013 ). • the second factor authentication for the ‘ card not present ’ transaction, the first of its kind in the world, introduced by rbi ( february 2009. ) • launch of rupay – a domestic card payment network ( march 2012 ) 7. let me also give you a sense of the manner in which the volume and value of payment system transactions have gone up in recent years. in volume terms, the no. of transactions handled in the rtgs has gone up to 92. 77 mn as at the end of march 2015 from 68. 51 mn as at the end of march 2013. during the same period, in value terms, these transactions have gone up from rs. 677 tn to rs. 754 tn. under the retail payments ( including paper clearing and retail electronic clearing ), the volume handled more than doubled from 694 mn as at the end of march 2013 to 1687 mn as at the end of march 2015. similarly, in value terms also, this has more than doubled to rs. 65 tn from about rs. 32 tn. further, the volume and value of card payments have also more than doubled in both volume and value terms during this period. the volume handled as at the end of march 2015 was 1737 mn transactions with a value of rs. 3. 3 tn. these numbers are mighty impressive considering the level of economic development in the country but as i mentioned earlier, there is much more work needed to be done going forward. we need to develop the capabilities to handle more bis central bankers ’ speeches and more number of transactions in a safe, secure and efficient manner, if our objective of weaning consumers away from cash has to be achieved. 8. several initiatives for infrastructure enhancements are currently on which include implementation of trade receivables and discounting system and the bharat bill payment system. rbi had come out with a vision document for 2012 – 15 earlier and most of the objectives