IDFC Aadhaar Pay launched Tuesday March 07,2017

IDFC Aadhaar Pay, the country's first Aadhaar-linked cashless merchant solution, was officially launched on Tuesday March 07,2017, following successful pilots across 16 States.

Dr Ajay Pandey, CEO,UIDAI, Dr. Rajiv Lall, Founder, MD & CEO, IDFC Bank, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog and Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary Electronics & IT (L to R ) during the launch of IDFC Aadhaar Pay , in New Delhi on Tuesday

Speaking at the launch event, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NITI Aayog, said that IDFC Bank has set the trend and all other banks should now follow IDFC Bank in rolling out similar facility.

Kant highlighted that the IDFC Aadhaar Pay was significant as it was not charging any merchant discount rate, which was a painpoint for merchants.

Rajiv Lall, Founder Managing Director & CEO, IDFC Bank said that individuals with savings accounts in any bank can transact on IDFC Aadhaar Pay using fingerprint as digital identity to make cashless payments at merchant points.

"A differentiating feature of IDFC Aadhaar Pay is that it actually makes cashless transactions for those who have no phones. It enables the phone-less and feature phone population to make payments digitally, Lall said.

Over the next 36 months, IDFC Bank will look to on-board as many as 1 lakh merchants across the country to its IDFC Aadhaar Pay solution, Lall said.

In the pilot phase, spanning three months, over 1,500 merchants have enabled digital transactions for customers of all banks, using IDFC Aadhaar Pay on their smartphones

IDFC Aadhaar Pay is an Aadhaar-linked interoperable banking software application developed by IDFC Bank. This app is made available on a merchant's smartphone. Customers can pay the merchant by selecting the bank's name and filling only one field on the merchant's phone -- the Aadhaar number.The customer's fingerprint is the password used to authenticate the transaction.

Customers need not use debit or credit cards, download mobile applications or even carry a mobile to make cashless transactions. This solution eliminates the hassles of remembering passwords, account numbers, or setting up of virtual payment addresses and using USSD codes to transfer money.