NPCI launches the NPCI PayAuth Challenge on APIX

By Edil Corneille

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in the country, has launched a global level Hackathon – ‘NPCI PayAuth Challenge’. The objective is to find alternative solutions for the authorisation of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions through options like biometrics.

This challenge, supported by cross-border, open architecture API marketplace and sandbox platform – APIX, will provide risk-based user authentication and user-friendly transaction authorization for millions of UPI users. The NPCI PayAuth Challenge intends to find alternate solutions including biometric verification and similar innovations for authorizing payments on the UPI platform.

UPI is a payment system in India through which customers can link their bank accounts to a mobile application and make easy, safe and instant money transfers, online shopping, paying bills and so on. The NPCI PayAuth Challenge is an open global contest for individuals and enterprises offering technology solutions in payments especially suited for startups with ready solutions that can be piloted with limited additional development and integration efforts. Registrations for the Hackathon has begun.

The solutions should be UPI integrated which can showcase end-to-end onboarding of customers and authorization of transactions, along with providing parameters to enable risk scoring of users and transactions. The challenge gives participants a chance to work with NPCI for developing a solution which will change the digital payments landscape in India as well as abroad and win prize money of USD 20,000. The runner up will receive USD 10,000.

Arif Khan, Chief Digital Officer, NPCI said, “We are glad to launch the NPCI PayAuth Challenge, organized in association with APIX. We believe that this challenge is yet another step towards providing unwavering commitment to the innovative minds and fast-tracking the process of facilitating them realize their dreams. We look forward to some state-of-the-art solutions from creative and inventive minds that can provide an all new dimension to UPI platform in terms of security and user-friendliness. FinTechs play a pivotal role in cementing the foundation of the dynamic, ever-evolving digital payments industry. We are confident that this journey will culminate in the incubation of promising ideas full of potential and reach the apogee of success simultaneously empowering talented FinTechs with the right kind of mentorship, expertise and resources.”

“APIX is facilitating NPCI’s ingenious remote hackathon to identify solutions for payment authentication and authorization to benefit transaction users. It is APIX’s honour and pleasure to support the NPCI PayAuth Challenge and we are very happy to be a part of their journey to empower the FinTech community,” added Paul Gwee, Board Director of AFIN.