What is IMPS?
IMPS is a payment service or a method for instant money transfer. It has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). IMPS is a real-time and secure money transfer system through which we can transfer money 24×7, even on public holidays. IMPS facility can be availed through various methods such as mobile, internet, ATM, and SMS. It has made it very convenient to send and receive money from anywhere and anytime.
IMPS stands for Immediate Payment Service. It is controlled by NPCI. The National Financial Switch Framework is the base for the development of IMPS. IMPS, as developed today, went through many stages and has a significant history of development. Various milestones in IMPS development are as follows:
- August 2010: NPCI conducted a pilot study on the topic of mobile payment systems in collaboration with various banks such as SBI, ICICI, BOI, etc.
- September 2010: This project was joined by Yes Bank.
- October 2010: This project was joined by Axis Bank.
- November 2010: This project was joined by HDFC Bank.
- 22 November 2010: IMPS was publicly launched on this date by Shyamala Gopinath, DG at RBI, Mumbai.
- Initially, it was launched only by 4 banks, which are Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, Bank of India and ICICI Bank, but now this facility has been implemented by more than 150 banks across the country.