Sarvatra on-boards 50 co-operative banks on UPI platform

Sarvatra Technologies, a banking technology provider announced that it has on-boarded 50 urban co-operative banks live on its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform, thereby making them interoperable with all the large banks across the country.

The landmark milestone reflects more than 170 per cent annual growth in the number of co-operative banks on the company’s UPI platform.

UPI is the world’s first truly interoperable platform built on mobile-first principles. By bringing the co-operative banks on-board its UPI platform, Sarvatra Technologies is bringing them at par with other large private and public banks.

Mandar Agashe, Founder and Vice Chairman, Sarvatra Technologies, said in a statement, “We are delighted that customers of the 50 urban co-operative banks on-boarded by Sarvatra can now link their bank account to any PSP app like Google Pay, PhonePe, WhatsApp Pay, Bhim UPI, etc., and be at par with customers of large public and private banks. Interoperable across all PSPs and one of the most secure technologies, UPI is making financial inclusion a reality at grassroots, even in the remotest areas. It is therefore imperative to get the co-operative banks, DCCBs and SCBs across the country on to the UPI platform at the earliest.”

Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO at NPCI said, “We are happy to collaborate with Sarvatra Technologies and facilitate the large-scale onboarding of banks onto the UPI ecosystem. This initiative will open avenues for the consumers of the urban cooperative banks and empower them to make instantaneous UPI payments seamlessly. We at NPCI believe that this association will be a landmark moment in the transformation of the digital payments ecosystem by providing easy access to real-time, interoperable payment solutions to consumers in the far-flung regions of the country.”

UPI or the instant real-time payment system facilitates inter-bank transactions on a mobile platform. In other words, the technology links the bank account with a smartphone app allowing the transfer of money between two parties and their bank accounts. This means the customers of the aforesaid co-operative banks can now send and receive money seamlessly using any of the apps viz. Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, or NPCI’s own BHIM app. The co-operative banks on-boarded by the company hail from 11 states across the country – with Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka having the greatest number of banks going live on the Sarvatra UPI platform.

The first co-operative bank went live on Sarvatra UPI in the year 2017-18. In a matter of a couple of years, UPI transactions have increased exponentially out of all electronic service delivery channels in these banks, forming the majority of digital transactions done by their customers today. In short, Sarvatra UPI has helped co-operative banks to provide better, faster, and cheaper funds transfer and utility bill payment services, which has increased customer satisfaction.