No data compromise in our network: NPCI

Is the data of your debit or credit card safe when used at any point-of-sale terminals or automated teller machines? Yes, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Negating news reports that data of 10 banks have been hacked from NPCI’s system, NPCI has asserted in a statement that there has been “no data compromise” in its network and that its systems were “fully safe and secure”.

NPCI follows high level of security and an integrated approach to protect its infrastructure and build a robust payments ecosystem, it added.

Even in respect of the card transactions reported by a few banks to NPCI, it is also observed that there is no transaction pertaining to any of Rupay Card, according to NPCI statement.

“We stand resolved to support the member banks for clarifications, if any,” the statement said.

Bankers feel there is no scope for data compromise at NPCI end as the data are not stored in NPCI’s servers. This is even as NPCI may facilitate ATM transaction settlement between banks.

Meanwhile, mobile application experts also see little scope for any “data compromise” in newly introduced unified payment interface (UPI) platform launched by NPCI.

“UPI is more secure than conventional payment methods since it allows you to create a unique payment ID for eg. rahul@yes which will be your payment address and you will not be required to share your sensitive bank account details with anyone else ever to receive payments”, Rahul Gochhwal, Co Founder of Trupay, a fintech start-up, told BusinessLine .

Set up in 2009 as the central infrastructure for various retail payment systems in India, NPCI was envisaged by the Reserve Bank of India as the payment utility for all banks in the country.

From a single service of switching of inter-bank ATM transactions, NPCI’s range of services has grown to cheque clearing, immediate payments service money transfer, automated clearing house, electronic benefit transfer and a domestic card payment network named ‘Rupay’ to provide an alternative to international card schemes.