Domestic
PAYMENTS SIGNAL · REFERENCE CARDIndia IMPS — Immediate Payment Service
A rupee transfer that reaches the payee in seconds at any hour, addressed by mobile number, while the banks settle their net positions later in central bank money at the Reserve Bank of India.
Actors
- Riya (payer)customer
- Bank Alfa (remitter bank)bank
- IMPS / NPCI switchinfrastructure
- Nordbank (beneficiary bank)bank
- Arjun (payee)customer
- Reserve Bank of India (settlement)infrastructure
Messages
No standard message — a book / internal transfer.
The sequence
| # | Step | Route | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Instruction — Riya instructs Bank Alfa using Arjun's mobile number | Riya → Bank Alfa | message |
| 2 | DR payer — Bank Alfa debits Riya's account | Bank Alfa | posting |
| 3 | IMPS transfer — Bank Alfa routes the transfer through the NPCI IMPS switch | Bank Alfa → IMPS / NPCI | message |
| 4 | CR payee — Nordbank validates and credits Arjun within seconds | Nordbank | posting |
| 5 | Success status — NPCI confirms the transfer succeeded | IMPS / NPCI → Bank Alfa | message |
| 6 | Deferred net settlement — NPCI settles the net interbank positions at the RBI | IMPS / NPCI → RBI | settlement |
Exception rails
| Rail | Trigger | Where the money ends up | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invalid MMID: the address does not resolve | The mobile number and MMID Riya used do not resolve to a valid account — the MMID is wrong, or the number is not registered for IMPS at any bank. | Returned to Riya — the transfer failed before it could be applied to any account. · No settlement: a failed transfer never enters NPCI's net position, so there is nothing to settle at the RBI. | IMPS / NPCI — Riya rechecks Arjun's mobile number and MMID — both must be correct and registered for IMPS — then tries again. |