March 13, 2019
State Bank of India is partnering with Financial Software and Systems, a payment and fintech company, to implement a "One Nation, One Card" program meant to enable digital transit payments at mass scale.
The National Common Mobility Card program assures payments interoperability across India's transit providers and allows customers to pay for transit services across India using a single card.
In the past, transit providers have deployed proprietary payment solutions, resulting in fragmentation and limited adoption of cashless solutions, according to a press release.
SBI has enabled the issuance of FSS prepaid digital solutions for tap and pay contact and contactless cards. The Common Mobility card functions as a digital prepaid account for multimodal transit, linked with a standard debit card for account-based transactions at ATM, POS and e-commerce channels.
The solution eliminates the need for commuters to pay cash at toll stations and ticket kiosks or tie up funds with multiple transit cards. Instead cardholders simply load transit funds into the stored-value account and pay fares by tapping their card on the terminal reader.
"We are excited to build on our leadership position and bring innovative digital payments experiences to consumers through our partnership with the State Bank of India," Suresh Rajagopalan, FSS president of retail payments, said in the release. "The One Nation, One Card program is a significant step in realizing the Digital India vision by bringing a critical mass of microtransactions into the digital fold."
The FSS platform behind the One Nation, One Card program manages card issuance, transaction clearing and settlement. Issuing capabilities include registration, verification, card issuance, top-up of funds into a prepaid wallet, and card lifecycle management, as well as reconciliation and reporting to help banks efficiently manage their card portfolios.
The digital prepaid solution supports operator-specific applications — e.g., monthly passes and season tickets. Issuers of the smart card can load, delete and amend applications to tailor a card at the time of issuance and load supplementary applications later, according to the release
The solution supports transaction authorization, clearing and settlement functions for participant entities. Transit merchants where "speed at checkout" is imperative can authorize transactions offline instantly.
The digital prepaid solution supports multiple fund sources including bank accounts, cash deposits at authorized locations, and card-to-wallet transfers. Customers can also withdraw cash at designated toll points and outlets.
Topics: Contactless / NFC, Mobile/Digital Wallet, Transaction Processing
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