Visa ties up with UIDAI to facilitate cash transfer scheme

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Visa International along with a consortium of banks, rolled out Saral Money, last month.

Saral Money, is a payment service through which, Aadhaar cardholders can deposit and withdraw money from their bank accounts via ATMs, point of sale terminals, bank branches and proposed micro-ATMs.

The global electronic payment firm has offered its nationwide network to the government through which the government can distribute subsidies directly to the beneficiaries of the 'direct benefit transfer scheme'.

Visa has already tied up with banks like State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Axis Bank.

"We're in talks with the government through the consortium of banks that we have tied up with. We're talking to them for trying to use us in any of the 51 districts or any of the schemes they are planning," said Visa's group country manager for India and South Asia, Uttam Nayak.

Though the government could not roll out cash transfer scheme is all the 51 districts due to infrastructural gap but it could manage to roll out the scheme in 20 districts across the country. Under this scheme, subsidy payments will be directly transferred to bank accounts of some 2 lakh beneficiaries in 20 districts.

The seven schemes from which the first set of payouts will come, include, scholarships for SC, ST and OBCs students, the Indira Gandhi Matrutva Sahayata Yojana, Dhanalakshmi scheme and a stipend scheme for SC & ST job seekers.

Next month, 11 more districts will be covered and from March 1, another 12 districts will be covered. Visa International plans to utilize biometric fingerprint recognition to facilitate payments.

"Eliminate the card and the phone and the Internet: use your finger. We are linking the Aadhaar number, your card number and your phone number to your finger. Your credentials are saved one time. The revolution is: more reach, with more access to payment, because the form factor is eliminated," says Nayak.