On 22nd June 2020, The Indian Financial Technology & Allied Services (IFTAS), wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India appoints T Rabi Sankar as the Chairman and Dr. N Rajendran as the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) effective from 15th May 2020 and 27th May 2020 respectively.
Tavarna Rabi Sankar:
i.He is currently serving as the Executive Director of Payment Systems, Information Technology(IT), Risk Management and Fintech in the Reserve Bank of India(RBI).
ii.He is a member of important committees including Expert Committee on Integration of Commodity Spot and Derivative Markets (established by the Government of India), Working Group on Establishing Viable Capital Markets and Working Group on Dollar Funding Markets (established by the Bank for International Settlements(BIS))
iii.He was the International Monetary Fund (IMF) consultant to the Government and Central Bank of Bangladesh.
iv.On deputation he worked with the Ministry of Finance from 2008 to 2014.
Rajendran:
i.He holds a PhD in Computer Science and experience in technology management, cybersecurity, strategizing, people and technology management.
ii.He worked as the chief architect in the creation and implementation of Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
iii.Ideas and implementations:
- National Financial Switch (NFS) and Cheque Truncation System (CTS)
- Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)
- National Automated Clearing House (NACH)
- Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS)
Services of IFTAS to Banking and Financial sector:
i.Indian Financial Network (INFINET) – Over 290 banks and financial institutions of India are members of INFINET for secure IT network and communication.
ii.Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) – Over 220 banks and financial institutions use this platform for inter-bank financial and non-financial messaging for Real-Time Gross Settlement(RTGS), National Electronic Funds Transfer(NEFT), Letters of Credit (LC), Bank Guarantee (BG), etc.
iii.Mobility Platform – 5 Banks use this digital payment tool to provide secure and low cost services for poor people and support services like savings and easy payment of bills.
Products: Wallet, Mobile Banking and Agent lead transactions with FIBC
iv.Global Interchange for Financial Transactions (GIFT) – this digital solution of IFTAS targets central and small banks for Centralized Payment & Settlement System.
This provides end-to-end straight-through processing (STP) of payment messages between the source & destination banks through the central bank, supporting batched, gross & bulk settlement modes
About IFTAS:
Chairman– T. Rabi Sankar
CEO– N. Rajendran
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Governor– Shaktikanta Das
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
