CRED gets approval from BBP to function as customer operating unit

Business: Fintech major Cred has received approval from Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to operate as a customer operating unit (COU). The company claims that with this latest development, credit card bill payments will be settled faster, and its users will get access to all billers on board the BBPS. The COU certification will enable the company to partner with large billers and banks to join the BBPS. According to the BBPS website, banks or non-bank institutions authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that carry out payment collection, settlement and aggregation business can join Bharat BillPay as operating units. As an agent entity of the BBPS, the company processed bill payments worth over Rs 15,000 crore across banks in July. The banking regulator has mandated that credit card payments must be processed through the BBPS from July 1. Business Standard had reported that some third-party applications had opted out of exclusively facilitating credit card bill payments for banks integrated into BBPS from July 1, out of concern about compliance with the RBI mandate.

Subsequently,

major credit issuers, including the largest HDFC Bank, integrated their systems with BBPS to receive credit card repayments through third-party applications. Currently, 18 major issuers are live on the platform, including ICICI Bank, SBI Cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank, BOB Cards and IndusInd Bank. There are now over 30 credit card issuers in the country. “With CoU certification, we can make payments on time every time and guarantee its settlement. Digital public infrastructure – such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), account aggregators and BBPS – has been a platform for fintech innovation, and I look forward to empowering CRED members with more products to progress in their financial journey,” said Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED.