Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has licensed 26 banks and 7 non-banking companies to operate as Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs). RBI had received 80 applications from banks and 62 applications from non-banking entities for the BBPOU license. The 26 banks include State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and RBL Bank, while the non-banking entities include PayU, Paytm, Oxigen and TechProcess.
These 33 companies will come under the umbrella of an integrated electronic bill payment service called Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) through which their customers will be able to pay their electricity, gas, water and telephone bills.
The payment service is expected to be rolled out by the first half of July, which will be operated and managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The system will offer a single window facility to consumers to pay their bills unlike the present system that requires them to transact on different gateways to pay their bills. BBPS is also expected to include the payments of school fee, university fee, mutual funds, insurance premiums and municipality taxes in future, subject to the clearance from the RBI.