The Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) is at the forefront of increasing financial inclusion in India, especially in the rural and semi-urban pockets. And Pay1 is gearing up to deploy these AePS machines as an ideal replacement to the usage of debit cards.
Aadhaar enabled payment system (AePS) has been conceived by the nodal agency National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to carry out financial transactions on a micro-ATM or a POS machine by just furnishing the Aadhaar card number and verifying it with the help of their fingerprint scan. Customers can access account balance, deposit cash, withdraw money and transfer funds to other Aadhaar-linked bank accounts through the help an AePS machine.
Instead of full-fledged ATMs or small bank branches, these terminals are a cheaper alternative as they can be installed at a merchant location in a village without a bank branch or an ATM, especially in the rural parts of the country.
At the introductory phase, most of these transactions are peer-to-peer settlement or small value transactions settled over smartphones. But with the increase in the number of retail stores becoming the AePS centres, and by penetrating the rural markets, Pay1 hopes to make AePS an important mode of high value and high-frequency transactions.
While the AePS aims at getting maximum Indians under the financial inclusion umbrella, Pay1 takes the lead in making the retailer also a major beneficiary of the service and getting it to the last mile.
The Pay1 retailer offering the AePS facility will see an increased footfall, opportunities to cross sell and earn lucrative commissions for the transactions. This feature also upgrades an offline retailer to become a banking point for the customers.
With the vision to create supplementary revenue streams and create micro-entrepreneurship opportunities for maximum offline retailers, Pay1 is paving the way for transforming the retailers from just being ‘corner – stores’ to channels of percolating digitalisation, financial inclusion, good governance and increased commerce.
