All of us in lockdown state are in a dire need of digital payments and the pandemic has brought us in the limelight that Digital Transactions are not just for convenience but also a necessity that we should be adapting. There are plenty of options that comes to our mind when we talk about fund Transfer’s / Utility Bills Payments available in the Nepalese Retail market namely – (connectIPS, Digital Wallets, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, Others). These are all the solutions on an individual user basis. In such a scenario, NCHL has brought online transaction solutions, National Payments Interface (NPI) for the corporate sector.
Digital Payment for Corporate Sector
Even though digital payment is getting easier for personal level customers, online digital transactions for Corporate Companies has been a hurdle during the recent time of Pandemic. This has been the result of their limited / Non-availability of Digital Channels as bank branches are operating in a limited number to maintain social distancing.
Some of the Payments channels available for Nepal Based Company are (NCHL – Electronics Cheques Clearing, NCHL – Interbank Fund Transfers, connectRTGS, Banks Internet Banking) which needed to have dependency with Banks for making payments where in companies have to visit the bank branches for making transactions to/from the stakeholders of the companies.
Nepal Clearing House Limited is a public limited company promoted by Nepal Rastra Bank (The Central Bank of Nepal), commercial banks, development banks, finance companies, and Smart Choice Technologies (SCT).
The ERP Era in Corporate Sector
The advancement in technology and its cost-effectiveness has led companies to adopt different ERP Systems. Corporate Companies have automated their processes using the ERP’s but when it comes to digital transactions still companies are using Cheque / IPS – Request based on making any payments / receiving payments.
Through this, Corporate Companies can make all their payments electronically to their Vendors, Partners, Govt Institutions, Stake Holders with Less / No Dependency on Banks over secured channels with multiple levels of authorizations. Corporate Companies can receive their collections directly to their account from their Dealers / Partners Bank Account while automated posting of the transactions into their ERP.
Revolutions of API Banking/Open Banking
What is API Banking?
Application Programming Interface Banking (API Banking) allows you to access the bank’s transaction processing services from the Corporate Company ERP environment. Transactions can be triggered by the Corporate Company ERP System as API calls to the bank’s system through a secured system upon integration between Corporate Customer’s ERP.
As a result, Corporate Companies can have easy, fast, hassle-free, and secure transactions for all their business needs with less dependency on banks.
National Payments Interface (NPI)
National Payments Interface (NPI) is the consolidated Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of multiple payment systems hosted by NCHL or any other institutions built in an Open API platform concept. It currently provides access to the NCHL-IPS system and connectIPS e-payment as underlying payment systems with the overlaying services built on top of the platform. It primarily supports push transactions with seamless integration to connectIPS for real-time instant payments and to NCHL-IPS for deferred credit payments.
Hence, NCHL–National Payment Interface (NPI) has brought such a global solution (API Banking) for Nepalese companies having their own system/ERP for payment initiations from their interface.
With this Nepal has been quickly adapting the wave of a new era of banking and moving forward in the vision of cashless economy in the country.
