India-based Financial Software and Systems (FSS), a payments and fintech leader, has launched its Instant Payments system, a central payment clearing and settlement infrastructure for instant domestic and international money transfers.

Instantaneity is at the heart of the most successful global payment system, until date, i.e., cash, with digital transactions forming a mere 20 per cent of total transactions, said a statement.

A predominant reason for low adoption is that current payment rails are expensive and non-real-time. FSS Instant Payments allows regulators to build low-cost payment rails for universal, fast, secure and affordable push and pull payment transactions, it said.

FSS Instant Payments allows financial institutions to provide improved services to customers. This includes: initiate and receive payments 24 hours a day, any day of the year, including weekends and public holidays; make payments using any payment instrument - bank accounts, wallets and cards; immediate settlement and availability of funds; and address payments in a relatively simple way.

FSS Instant Payments supports quick on-ramp to the central payment infrastructure, with its Financial Messaging Gateway for payment service providers (PSPs). The Financial Messaging Gateway enables PSPs to expose application programing interfaces to monetise infrastructure investments and deploy innovative overlay services that deliver real customer value.

Based on regional market trends, the potential use cases span - person-to-person, person-to-business and business-to-business payments.

Suresh Rajagopalan, president - products business, FSS, said: “We are excited about the launch of FSS Instant Payments. Instant real-time payment rails would enable countries architect a modern digital real-time payment infrastructure and exploit massive growth opportunities, arising from an on-demand, always-on 24/7 connected economy.”

“By democratizing access to payment rails, and creating a level-playing field for fintechs, banks and financial institutions, FSS Instant Payments would have a multiplier impact on adoption of digital payments by customers,” he added.

Ram Chari, global business head, FSS, said: “This is a major milestone in our 25+ years history of payments innovation. Across markets, there is a huge growth momentum for Instant Payments and FSS is well-positioned to leverage its vast experience to help regulators, banks, payment processors globally to achiever quick-mover advantage and bring benefits of real-time payments to customers.”

FSS will collaborate with central regulators to design scheme rules as well as risk governance and management structures for Instant Payments. The underlying system is highly configurable and can be tailored to specific regulatory and compliance environment of multiple countries, ensuring highest levels of security and customer protection.

FSS Instant Payments offers a complete set of capabilities for processing real-time payments to participating institutions. This includes connectivity, processing, clearing, and settlement, risk management, exception handling and dispute management, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service