Punjab National Bank (PNB) becomes the first public sector bank to introduce an IVR-based UPI solution – UPI 123PAY, aligning with the Digital Payment Vision 2025 towards a cashless and cardless society.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) has introduced UPI 123PAY, which is an IVR-based UPI solution. This is a big step towards creating a society where people can make payments without using cash or cards, in line with the Digital Payment Vision 2025.
So, what is UPI 123PAY?
It’s a payment channel called Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which allows customers to make fast and secure payments anytime, day or night. Until now, you could only use this solution if you had a smartphone or access to USSD service and a good internet connection. However, with UPI 123PAY, anyone with any type of phone, even if they have low internet connectivity, can use it to make UPI transactions.
UPI123 Pay is an instant payment solution for feature phone (non-smartphone) users who can use Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment service in a fast and easy manner; it allows users to make payments without using the internet. This service is designed to be more inclusive and reach around 400 million feature phone users in the country.
How to use UPI 123PAY?
The UPI 123PAY functionality is simple and involves the following steps:
Step 1-Dial the bank’s easy-to-remember IVR number “9188-123-123″
Step 2-Choose the beneficiary
Step 3-Authenticate the transaction
UPI 123PAY will be multilingual and be available in the customer’s preferred language.
In India, a large number of people live in rural and semi-urban areas, where cash is still widely used for daily needs. Since around 63% of PNB branches are in these areas, the bank has a lot of customers in remote regions. To help these people who don’t have smartphones or internet access, PNB is introducing UPI 123PAY. It will allow anyone, with any type of phone, to make payments through UPI from anywhere in India. This functionality is also available for non-PNB customers. The Managing Director and CEO of PNB expressed their excitement about this development.