the system. for keynote address by shri b. p. kanungo, deputy governor, reserve bank of india, at the npci national payments excellence awards function, mumbai, on may 29, 2018. inputs received from the department of payment & settlement systems are acknowledged. example, dilution of kyc, aml framework can seriously undermine public confidence in the system itself and must be eschewed. 18. the spirit to leverage technological innovation to safely and securely bridge the gap in payment systems should continue to be our watchword. if today ’ s awards of excellence is any indication, i am optimistic that the future is bright. let us not be a part of the future – let us create the future and make it successful. 19. my congratulations to the winners of award today. the award should goad them to further excellence and inspire others to create a payment system that is safe, secure, efficient, convenient and best in the world. i wish npci will play a stellar role in achieving this. thank you. keynote address by shri b. p. kanungo, deputy governor, reserve bank of india, at the npci national payments excellence awards function, mumbai, on may 29, 2018. inputs received from the department of payment & settlement systems are acknowledged.

npci over the years has operated various retail payment systems viz. imps, upi - including bhim, national unified ussd platform ( nuup ) for mobile payments, rupay, nach, aadhaar based aeps, including aadhaar pay, apbs, bbps, netc, etc., some of which are available for use on a 24x7 basis. in all the payment systems the main role of npci has been to offer switching services and the attendant clearing and settlement facilities. this has involved creating technology platforms, setting up standards, framing procedural guidelines, creating risk management structure, etc. which, in a way has changed the retail payments scenario of the country. thus initial expectations of the reserve bank, have been largely fulfilled. retail payment systems : the rise of india in the global map 4. india has been always been a country which has fostered innovation and development in the area of payment and settlement systems. the past keynote address by shri b. p. kanungo, deputy governor, reserve bank of india, at the npci national payments excellence awards function, mumbai, on may 29, 2018. inputs received from the department of payment & settlement systems are acknowledged. decade has witnessed the blossoming of a myriad of payment systems, all for the convenience of the common man. 5. for a country which has a large dependence on cash, the only major payment system until the 90s was the cheque clearing system. we still process over 90 million cheques per month. this is important as cheques are also non - cash transactions and are often not given due importance. this system was also unique in the sense that there were more than 1000 clearing houses in the country – a big number by any standard. the initial steps towards the change in the payment systems was the mechanisation of the clearing houses managed by the reserve bank in the late eighties by the introduction of the micr technology for cheque processing. this not only ushered in computerisation of clearing, but also sowed the seeds for the digitisation of payments in the years to come. the initial steps towards electronic products were all set up by the reserve bank and once the level of maturity was reached, the market was allowed to develop and thus came about the emergence of interoperable atms. the nfs has proven that in a large country like india, networked atms can function very well and that costs are shared by competing entities as well. today,