National Financial Switch

National Financial Switch

Operating area	India
Members	90 Direct Members 228 Sub-Members 52 RRBs 7 WLAOs
ATMs	188600
Founded	27 August 2004
Owner	NPCI

National Financial Switch (NFS) is the largest network of shared automated teller machines (ATMs) in India.^[1] It was designed, developed and deployed by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) in 2004, with the goal of inter-connecting the ATMs in the country and facilitating convenience banking for the average Indian. It is run by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Background

The first ATM in India was set up in 1987 by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Mumbai.^[2] In the following twelve years, about 1500 ATMs were set up in India. In 1997, the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) set up Swadhan, the first network of shared ATMs in India. It was managed by India Switch Company (ISC) for five years, and allowed cardholders to withdraw cash from any ATM in the network, for a fee if they did not have an account with the bank that owned the ATM. In 2002, the network connected over 1000 ATMs of the 53 member banks of the association. The network was capable of handling 250,000 transactions per day, but only 5000 transactions, worth about ₹100,000, took place each day. In contrast, ICICI Bank's network of about 640 ATMs handled transactions worth about ₹20,000,000 each day. After the contract with ISC expired, IBA failed to find a bidder to manage the operationally uneconomical network, and shut it down on 31 December 2003.

After the collapse of Swadhan, Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, United Bank of India and Syndicate Bank formed an ATM-sharing network called CashTree. Citibank, the Industrial Development Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank and UTI Bank formed a similar network called Cashnet. Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank also created such networks.

In August 2003, the IDRBT announced that it would be creating the National Financial Switch (NFS) to link together the country's ATMs in a single network.

The IDRBT collaborated with Euronet Worldwide and Opus Software to build a platform to allow banks to connect their own switches to the NFS. The NFS consisted of an inter-ATM switch and a e-commerce payment gateway.

History

The National Financial Switch was launched by the IDRBT on 27 August 2004, connecting the ATMs of three banks, Corporation Bank, Bank of Baroda and ICICI Bank.^[3][4][5] The IDRBT then worked towards bringing all major banks in India on board and by December 2009, the network had grown to connect 49,880 ATMs of 37 banks, thereby emerging as the largest network of shared ATMs in the country.

IDRBT decided to hive off its operational role on ATM switching to refocus on research and development, and was sought to shift the business to a national-level payment system organization. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) started discussions with IDRBT on the feasibility of taking over. The Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS) at its meeting held on 24 September 2009 approved in-principle to issue authorisation to NPCI for operating various retail payment systems in the country. The Reserve Bank of India granted authorisation to NPCI to take over the operations of National Financial Switch (NFS) from the Institute of Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) on a ‘as is where is basis’ on 15 October 2009. NPCI deputed its officials to IDRBT Hyderabad, and the Institute handed over the National Financial Switch to the NPCI on 14 December 2009.

Any bank that provides core banking services with 24x7 transaction banking capabilities with or without ATMs may join the National Financial Switch through a sponsor bank. This allows non-scheduled Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to gain access to the national network of over 103,000 ATMs in the country. Before 14 August 2011, access was limited to scheduled banks with RTGS membership.^[6] The sponsorship scheme was started to increase the connectivity of ATMs across the country, and to enable customers to use ATMs across India.

The primary headquarters is located at Mumbai.

Member banks

As of May 2014, the NFS Network connects 1,88,600 ATMs of 90 Direct Member banks, 228 Sub-Member banks, 52 RRB member banks and 7 white-label ATM providers, which is the largest number of ATMs under a single network in India. Citizen Credit Co-operative Bank has joined the National Financial Switch ATM network as the 90th direct member bank.^[7]

Services offered in NFS

NFS which is the largest domestic ATM network in the country member banks has been in the fore front in providing inter bank ATM services to maximum customers. Initially, the following basic transactions were available in the NFS network

• Cash Withdrawal
• Balance Enquiry
• PIN Change
• Mini Statement

To enable the member banks of NFS to offer greater utility to their customers, NPCI has introduced the below mentioned functionalities as value added services to enable customers to use these services at any participating bank ATMs.

Card to Card Fund transfer (ATM/Debit Card to ATM/Debit Card) : Using this service, a Card holder of a participating NFS Member Bank will be able to remit funds to another Card holder of a participating NFS Member Bank. The funds will be transferred basis the Beneficiary’s ‘Card Number’ which the remitter will be required to input at the time of the transaction. The main features of the service are mentioned below:

• Inter Operable
• Instant Fund Transfer
• 24/7 Availability
• Paper Less
• Secure
• Better Fund Management
• Transaction Limits - The transaction limits are in accordance with the RBI’s circular on ‘Domestic Money Transfer’. Accordingly, for cases where the Issuing and Beneficiary Cards are ‘Debit/ATM Cards’, the per transaction limit will be Rs.5000 and the monthly limit will be Rs.25,000 per remitter.

Cheque Book Request/Statement Request: At present, although statement & cheque book request options are available at ATMs, these are available only for customers of that particular bank. NFS aims to make this option inter operable wherein customers will be able to avail the aforementioned services at NFS member bank ATMs who avail this particular service from NPCI.

References

External links

• Reserve Bank of india
• National Financial Switch official web page

Banking in India
Reserve bank	Reserve Bank of India
Public sector banks	Allahabad Bank Andhra Bank Bank of Baroda Bank of India Bank of Maharashtra Bharatiya Mahila Bank Canara Bank Central Bank of India Corporation Bank Dena Bank IDBI Bank Indian Bank Indian Overseas Bank Oriental Bank of Commerce Post Bank of India Punjab & Sind Bank Punjab National Bank State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur State Bank of Hyderabad State Bank of India State Bank of Mysore State Bank of Patiala State Bank of Travancore Syndicate Bank UCO Bank Union Bank of India United Bank of India Vijaya Bank
Private sector banks	Axis Bank Bandhan Bank Catholic Syrian Bank City Union Bank DCB Bank Dhanlaxmi Bank Federal Bank HDFC Bank ICICI Bank IDFC Bank IndusInd Bank Jammu & Kashmir Bank Karnataka Bank Karur Vysya Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank Nainital Bank RBL Bank (Ratnakar Bank) South Indian Bank Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited Yes Bank
Cooperative banks	Buldhana Urban Cosmos Bank Repco Bank Saraswat Bank Shamrao Vithal Co-op. Bank TNSC Bank Rajkot Nagrik Sahakari Bank
Foreign banks	ABN AMRO Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Antwerp Diamond Bank Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Bank Internasional Indonesia Bank of America Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait Bank of Ceylon The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Barclays Citibank India Credit Suisse Deutsche Bank HSBC The Royal Bank of Scotland Scotiabank Standard Chartered
Regional Rural Banks	Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank Kerala Gramin Bank Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank Gramin Bank of Aryavart North Malabar Gramin Bank Pallavan Grama Bank Pandyan Grama Bank Paschim Banga Gramin Bank Sarva UP Gramin Bank South Malabar Gramin Bank Uttar Bihar Gramin Bank Vananchal Gramin Bank List of regional rural banks in Uttar Pradesh
Interbank networks	BANCS Cashnet Cirrus IMPS UPI MITR NFS PLUS RuPay
Defunct banks	Alliance Bank of Simla Arbuthnot & Co Bank of Bombay Bank of Calcutta Bank of Chettinad Bank of Cochin Bank of Hindostan Bank of Madras Bank of Madura Bank of Rajasthan Bank of Thanjavur Bareilley Corporation Bank Bengal Central Bank Bharat Overseas Bank Centurion Bank of Punjab Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China Commercial Bank of India Dass Bank Exchange Bank of India & Africa Global Trust Bank Grindlays Bank Hindustan Commercial Bank Imperial Bank of India ING Vysya Bank Lakshmi Commercial Bank Lord Krishna Bank Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank Mercantile Bank of India, London and China Miraj State Bank Nath Bank Nedungadi Bank New Bank of India Oriental Bank Corporation Oudh Commercial Bank Palai Central Bank Pandyan Bank Sikkim Bank State Bank of Indore State Bank of Saurashtra Times Bank United Industrial Bank United Western Bank
Related topics	Banks Board Bureau Banking Codes and Standards Board of India ATM usage fees in India De-Materialisation (DEMAT) Foreign Exchange (FOREX) Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) List of banks in India National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) National Payments Corporation of India Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) Prepaid Payment Instruments in India