FREQUENTLYASKEDQUESTIONS BY CUSTOMERS FOR AADHAAR ENABLED PAYMENT SYSTEM Page 1
1. What is AEPS? AEPS is a new payment service offered by the National Payments Corporation of India to banks, financial institutions using Aadhaar. This shall be known as Aadhaar Enabled Payment System and may also be referred to as AEPS. 2. What is Aadhaar? Aadhaar is a unique identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to any resident of India. 3. Can any customer be a part of AEPS? Any resident of India holding an Aadhaar number and having a bank account may be a part of the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. 4. Does the customer need to have a bank account for availing AEPS? Yes, the customer needs to have a bank account for availing AEPS. 5. Does the customer specifically need to register to conduct transactions through AEPS? No. Customer should have an Aadhaar (Unique ID as issued by UIDAI) number linked with any bank account (bank should be a part of AEPS network) where customer has an account. The registration process shall be as per the procedures laid down by the bank providing AEPS service. 6. Is the beneficiary customer also required to register for AEPS? No. But the beneficiary customer should also have an Aadhaar (UID) number with any bank, with which they maintain an account (bank should be a part of AEPS network) and in which he intends to receive the credit. 7. What is a Business Correspondent (BC)? Business Correspondent (BC) is an approved Bank Agent providing basic banking service using a MicroATM (terminal) to any bank customer wishing to avail their bank BC service. 8. Which individuals/ entities could be a business correspondent? The following individuals/ entities are eligible to become a business correspondent: a. Individuals like retired bank employees, retired teachers, retired government employees and ex-servicemen, individual owners of kirana/ medical/ Fair Price shops, individual Public Call Office (PCO) operators, agents of Small Savings schemes of Government of India/ Insurance Companies, individuals who own Petrol Pumps, authorized functionaries of well-run Self Help Groups (SHGs) which are linked to banks, any other individual including those operating Common Service Centres (CSCs); b. NGOs/ Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) set up under Societies/ Trust Acts and Section 25 Companies ; c. Cooperative Societies registered under Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Acts/ Cooperative Societies Acts of States/ Multi State Cooperative Societies Act; Page 2
d. Post Offices; and e. Companies registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956 with large and widespread retail outlets, excluding Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). [refer RBI Circular No.: RBI/2010-11/217 DBOD.No.BL.BC43/22.01.009/2010-11 dated September 28, 2010] 9. How does the customer conduct an AEPS transaction? A Customer may visit a BC Customer Access Point. The BC using the Point of Sale (MicroATM) device will be able to process transactions like Cash Withdrawal, Cash Deposit, Balance Enquiry and Fund Transfer by selecting the transaction of their choice. The Customer needs to provide their Aadhaar Number and their bank name or bank IIN number. Sr. No. Transaction Type Customer Inputs Required 1. Balance Enquiry Customer s Details: a. Aadhaar Number b. Bank s IIN c. Fingerprint 2. 3. Cash Withdrawal Cash Deposit Customer s Details: a. Aadhaar Number b. Bank s IIN c. Amount to be Withdrawn d. Fingerprint Customer s Details: a. Aadhaar Number b. Bank s IIN c. Amount to be Deposited d. Fingerprint 4. Fund Transfer Remitter s Details: a. Aadhaar Number b. Bank s IIN c. Amount to be Transferred d. Fingerprint Data Beneficiary s Details: a. Aadhaar Number b. Bank s IIN 10. What is an IIN? This number identifies your Bank with which you have mapped your Aadhaar number. IIN is a six digit number. In most banks BC customer service points, this number would be represented on the terminal by the banks logo or name. The BC agent would also have a chart displayed of various banks IIN. Therefore, this input need not be remembered by the customer. It is, however, Page 3
recommended that the customer be aware of their bank IIN to ensure a successful AEPS transaction. S. No. Bank Bank s IIN 1. Bank Of India 508505 2. Corporation Bank 508507 3. Syndicate Bank 508508 4. Union Bank of India 508500 5. The Federal Bank Limited 508523 6. Dhanlaxmi Bank LTD 508528 7. Axis Bank 508533 8. ICICI Bank 508534 9. Allahabad Bank 508540 10. Indian Overseas Bank 508541 11. The Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd 508542 12. Central Bank of India 508546 Page 4
S. No. Bank Bank s IIN 13. Dena Bank 508547 14. State Bank of India 508548 11. Can a customer link more than one account to the same Aadhaar number? Yes. The customer can link the same Aadhaar number to more than one account subject to bank offering that feasibility. However, only one account per customer in the bank will be the primary Aadhaar linked bank account into which all respective AEPS transactions will be effected. 12. Is there any limit on the value of transactions in AEPS? Aadhaar based accounts would be opened on the basis of simplified KYC guidelines. The bank with which you have linked your Aadhaar number would set the appropriate limit per transaction or in a given day. 13. Which banking services can the customer avail using AEPS? A customer can avail the following four services using AEPS: Cash Withdrawal Cash Deposit Balance Enquiry Fund Transfer 14. How are the Customer s IIN & Aadhaar Number added in the respective fields on the MicroATM terminal? At the MicroATM Terminal the customer has two options. He can either manually input the required information in the respective fields or he can swipe a RuPay ATM & MicroATM card with Aadhaar number that would extract the relevant data from card and present for further transaction processing Page 5
15. How many banks have issued the cards with the Aadhaar Number? The First few banks which have launched the RuPay ATM & MicroATM card with Aadhaar number are Bank of India & Corporation. Many other banks are in the process of issuing similar cards. Please find below sample images of respective banks RuPay ATM & MicroATM card 16. What happens if the remitter enters an incorrect beneficiary Aadhaar Number for a Fund Transfer transaction? In a Fund Transfer Transaction in AEPS the beneficiary Aadhaar number is required to be entered twice. The transaction is sent forward only if both the entries are identical. Scenario 1- Aadhaar Number does not exist in the database In case, the remitter enters an incorrect Aadhaar Number of beneficiary for a fund transfer transaction and such an Aadhaar Number does not exist in the UIDAI database, then the transaction will get declined with appropriate response on the MicroATM terminal. Scenario 2 - Valid Aadhaar Number but Incorrect IIN If the customer enters an incorrect IIN for the beneficiary with the valid Aadhaar number then the transaction in most probability will get declined by the beneficiary bank with an error message as Invalid IIN. It may be possible that the beneficiary may have multiple accounts in various banks linked to their Aadhaar number. In such a scenario the wrongly inputted IIN may land with a bank where the beneficiary has an Aadhaar linked bank account, then that particular bank account of the beneficiary will get effected. 17. What are the timings for initiating and receiving AEPS remittances? AEPS transactions can be initiated during the business hours of the respective BC centre of the sponsored bank. 18. Does the customer get his money back if a cash deposit transaction fails or times out? If yes, what is the procedure? If a cash deposit transaction fails or times out, then the message on the terminal would show the status of the transaction as failed. At this point the money is returned by the BC back to the customer. However, it is recommended that the customer may initiate a balance enquiry to know if Page 6
the balance has been effected. Accordingly another transaction may be initiated after seeing the balance. 19. Will the customer be charged to avail all these services? The respective bank would display/ announce the charges for AEPS transactions at the BC counter. 20. How long does it take to credit the beneficiary account? The AEPS transactions are real time. The customer would get a transaction receipt for every successful transaction conducted through AEPS. 21. Is it necessary to have a minimum balance to conduct a financial transaction through AEPS? This will be decided by the respective bank with which you have an Aadhaar linked bank account. 22. How does the customer know that the transaction has been completed successfully? For any transaction initiated from any MicroATM of any bank, a transaction receipt would be printed and handed over to the customer as a record with the transaction status. 23. Are all banks offering AEPS? The updated list of banks offering AEPS will be available in our website www.npci.org.in under the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) sub heading. 24. Is AEPS a safe and secure mode of transaction? AEPS is a safe and convenient channel enabling micropayments. Any successful transaction requires your fingerprint (biometric). This attribute is unique to every individual. Apart from this your biometric travels completely encrypted using the logic and standard as specified by the UIDAI which are a pre-requisite for any transaction to be successful initiated by any MicroATM. Any terminal not having this encryption or not having this as per UIDAI standards will be unable to affect transaction under AEPS as they will get rejected with an error code as invalid encryption on the terminal. AEPS only supports real time online biometric verification using the Aadhaar number. The fingerprints submitted during the enrolment of the individual need to match at the UIDAI server end to make any transaction successful. 25. What is POS? A Point of Sale-PoS (MicroATM) device is used to facilitate customers to make Cash Deposit, Cash Withdrawal, Fund Transfer and Balance Enquiry. The POS device may be a MicroATM. Page 7
Various Terminals at BC Customer Service Centre: Mobile Based Model: The mobile has an application that allows customers to enter the customer and transaction details. The mobile is linked to the printer-cum-scanner through Bluetooth which scans the fingerprint data put in by the customer. When the transaction is completed the customer receives a transaction receipt stating the finality status. POS based Model: This model has an in-built keypad, printer and scanner. The customer can enter their details using the keypad and verify the same on the screen. They can place their finger on the scanner and accept the receipt upon successful completion of the transaction. Page 8
26. If a customer dies and is having balance in their account, then what is the process to withdraw money from his/her account? If possible, please elaborate. The nominee of the account would have the rights over the account. However, the exact procedure to access the account would be outlined by the respective bank. 27. How does a Fund Transfer work? In Phase 1, to conduct a fund transfer a customer must go to the BC Service Centre of the bank with which Aadhaar number is linked. He can transfer money to any customer of any bank. Page 9
In Phase 2, to conduct a fund transfer a customer can go to the BC Service Centre of any bank. He can transfer money to any customer of any bank. Page 10
28. What do the receipts look like? After every successful transaction, a receipt is generated from the MicroATM providing the transaction details. Page 11
29. What does Screen flow of MicroATM look like? HOME SCREEN TRANSACTIONS HOME SCREEN BALANCE ENQUIRY Page 12
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CASH DEPOSIT Page 15
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CASH WITHDRAWAL Page 17
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FUNDS TRANSFER Page 20
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