Union Bank of India Becomes 1st PSU Bank To Go Live on Account Aggregator Ecosystem

Union Bank of India becomes the first public sector Bank to go live on the Account Aggregator Ecosystem for participating in Govt. of India’s Digital Initiatives.

The Account Aggregator Ecosystem helps the Lenders to leverage on Digital data acquired with the consent from the Customers for providing them a seamless journey and eliminating the need of physical documentation. Financial Information User (FIU) can request for data from the Financial Information User (FIP) based on a simple consent given by the Customer on their Account Aggregator handle.

Union Bank of India endeavors to work both as FIP and as FIU enabling its Customers to share Data digitally on real time basis. Union Bank has implemented the technology stack as per the Reserve Bank Information Technology (ReBIT) guidelines.

The Account Aggregator (AA) Ecosystem which went live in September 2021 has seen active participation from Banks/NBFCs in the country.

The Account Aggregator framework, introduced by the RBI, aims to make financial data more accessible by creating data intermediaries called Account Aggregators (AA) which will collect and share the user's financial information from a range of entities that hold consumer data called Financial Information Providers (FIPs).

Shivaami Cloud Services and ICICI Bank Collaborate to Launch Cloud Business Coupled with Transaction Banking API Solutions for Indian SMEs

Shivaami Cloud Services and ICICI Bank today announced their industry first collaboration to launch Cloud based products bundled with transaction banking API solutions in India. To broaden access to cloud technologies and help small and medium enterprises in India digitize, the solution provides a suite of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications including Google Suite for communication and efficient collaboration among teams, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for hosting and storage, FreshSales for effective customer relationship managements helping businesses interact with existing and potential customers, FreshDesk for providing customer support and FreshMarketer for Email Marketing. Along with these, businesses can streamline their accounting transactions by using API Banking services from ICICI Bank in a frictionless manner.

Companies can accelerate their growth and adopt the cloud way without putting a dent to their cash flow. Powered by API Banking services from ICICI Bank, they can easily integrate their ERPs where day to day transactions can be done in a secured and automated way with end to end instant reconciliations.

Punit Thakkar, Founder & CEO, Shivaami said, "Computing capabilities on the cloud are transforming the online business environment, enabling businesses to run faster, more efficiently and at a reduced cost. Driven on digital platforms, small and medium businesses hold a lot of opportunities to expand their services and improve everyday operations. Our partnership with ICICI Bank has helped us remain committed to providing the latest technology with an endeavor to fulfill customer needs and contribute to their growth journey."

Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Pankaj Gadgil, Head Self Employed Segment, ICICI Bank said, “At ICICI Bank we believe that ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘digitisation’ are the two growth enablers for the MSME businesses. Our tie-up with Shivaami is yet another initiative to enable our MSME customers to scale up their digitisation in a rapid and seamless manner. It offers ICICI Bank’s MSME customers access to attractively priced packages for availing world class cloud infrastructure services. This in-turn will help them to use the APIs available on the ICICI Bank Developer portal and rapidly add to their digitisation, without investing in setting up large IT infrastructure like physical servers. We believe that this access to new technology will help MSMEs improve their operational efficiencies, thereby accelerating themselves to grow and enhance their business.”

• G Suite: G Suite is an exclusive integrated suite of cloud tools that provide productivity and agility in business operations. It comprises Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar and more.


• Google Cloud Platform: Services and infrastructure that enable you to develop and deploy scalable applications and websites.


• Freshsales: A cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution. It helps businesses manage their interactions with existing and potential customers. Key features include one-click phone, sales lead tracking, sales management, event tracking and more.


• Freshdesk: A cloud-based customer support software and helpdesk solution. It is a platform with a comprehensive set of tools and features to help businesses support all the needs of their customers. Companies around the world use it to deliver exceptional customer service and experience.


• Freshmarketer: An all-in-one conversion rate optimization platform from the Freshworks productivity suite. It is built to help businesses improve their online presence and boost lead conversions using robust marketing functionalities that focus on analytics.

ICICI Bank’s API Banking portal consists of 250 banking APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which enables developers of prospective companies to seamlessly sign up on it, create an application, select the application, test it out and get the sample code. With this, businesses, fintechs, corporates and e-commerce start-ups can easily partner with the Bank and co-create innovative customer solutions in a smooth manner, all from the convenience of a single portal. The usage of ‘ICICI Bank API Banking Portal’ simplifies the process of digital collaboration for a company with the Bank and reduces the time taken to develop a business solution to a few days. This significantly raises productivity for partner companies. The portal hosts the maximum number of virtual APIs put together by any Indian Bank.

3i Infotech included in Global Banking Platform Deals Survey by independent research firm

3i Infotech Limited (BSE: 532628, NSE: 3IINFOTECH), a global Information Technology company, committed to accelerating business transformation, has been recognized as a Solid Player and a Base and Regional Player in the combined and new deals categories respectively, for its banking product – Kastle, in the Forrester’s Global Banking Platform Deals Survey 2020. 

Speaking on the recognition, Mr. Padmanabhan Iyer, Managing Director and Global CEO, 3i Infotech said, “3i Infotech is honoured to have Kastle Universal Banking included by a prestigious institution like Forrester. We believe that this recognition reinforces our commitment of delivering next-gen products to our customers across the globe. By constantly upgrading our comprehensive set of IP based software solutions & IT services solutions, we have re-invented ourselves to address the dynamic requirements of BFSI industry.” 

“Kastle Universal Banking Solution is an end-to-end banking solution catering to the entire spectrum of banking across Lending, Islamic Finance, Core Banking, Treasury, Trade Finance, Integrated Risk Management, Digital Banking and Analytics. AMLOCK (Financial Crime Detection and Management Solution) coupled with Kastle Universal Banking Solution is a force multiplier for banks and financial institutions to be digitally equipped and be future-ready to meet their business goals. Multiple combined deals is a testimony to Kastle Innovative Banking Solution by banks and financial institutions across the globe. We are honoured by this recognition by Forrester,” said Krish Narayanaswami, President and Global Banking Head, 3i Infotech. 

Forrester’s Global Banking Platform Deals Survey 2020 is an independent survey conducted annually by Forrester. The research is published to guide decision-makers at financial institutions around the world. Forrester surveyed 35 key banking platform vendors about their 2019 deals and published the results from the survey in their report, The Banking Platform Market Remains Stagnant, Though Smaller Banks Are Turning To Fintechs - Forrester Report Link.

About 3i Infotech 

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, since inception in 1993, the Company has been committed to driving business value across multiple industry verticals and has a strong BFSI presence. The company has over 5500 employees in 31 offices across 12 countries and over 1200+ customers in more than 50 countries across 4 continents. With a comprehensive set of IP based software solutions and a wide range of IT services, 3i Infotech has successfully transformed business operations of customers globally. The Company has a very strong foothold and customer base in geographies like North America, India, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and South Asia.  

Its flagship products include Kastle™ (Universal Banking Solution), AMLOCK™ (Financial Crime Detection and Management Solution), MFund™ Plus (Asset Management Solution), Premia™ Astra (Core Insurance Solution) and Orion™ (Enterprise Resource Planning Solution). 3i Infotech provides IT Services across Mobility, Data Analytics, Block Chain, Cloud Life Cycle Management, Testing Services, Infrastructure Management, Application Development & Maintenance, Professional Services, IT Consulting and BPO. 

Cashfree strengthens API Banking Platform ‘Payouts' by Increasing Partnerships with Leading Banks

Cashfree, India's leading business payments platform, has announced partnerships with HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and IndusInd Bank to strengthen Payouts, its bulk disbursal platform. Payouts, an API based banking solution, is a simple and automated way to send money in bulk to any company's bank account in India, instantly in real-time, 24x7 and even during bank holidays. Businesses can send money to other bank accounts, cards, Amazon Pay, Paytm and UPI IDs.

Akash Sinha, Co-Founder and CEO of Cashfree said, “Through our strategic partnerships with India leading banks, we continue to strengthen our platform and enable businesses to manage and automate bulk payments. By fortifying our network of banks, Cashfree's disbursals in the form of refunds, vendor payments and more will become faster and easier than ever.
Digital payments are witnessing tremendous growth in the country. In the last five years, we have witnessed the growth of unique internet businesses that are growing rapidly and changing the lives of their consumers. In such a scenario, it is imperative for money to move faster than ever before. Cashfree's Payouts is a true enabler of this movement, allowing businesses to make bulk payments instantly 24x7, even on bank holidays. The strong partnerships that we have forged with India's leading banks on our platform allows our merchant partners to have a higher success rate for online transactions, enabling them to focus on growing their business."

Payouts by Cashfree is used by thousands of businesses such as Delhivery, Xiaomi, Club Factory, and Shell, for use cases like vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty & rewards. More than 20 million bank accounts have received a payout through Cashfree.

Benefits of Payouts:

Instant beneficiary addition and money transfer 24x7, even on bank holidays: Businesses can instantly add beneficiaries and make bulk transfers through Cashfree. Money can be sent instantly, 24x7, even on bank holidays.

Robust APIs for automated Payouts: Cashfree's API can support millions of daily transactions to handle the scale of business. A user can simply use the API or opt to use the Payouts' simple excel file upload option via Cashfree's dashboard and make bulk payments.

Pay salaries, vendor payments and refunds directly from your internal product or ERP:

Users do not have to juggle between their ERP and banking applications to make payments. Bank current account holders can simply integrate Cashfree's Payouts API with their product or internal ERP and trigger the payments from their linked current account. Businesses with a maker-checker workflow can continue to authorize their payments in the Bank's Corporate Internet Banking portal.

Automated reconciliation of failed transfers:

Cashfree's intelligent algorithms can analyse a users' bank statement to reveal payment failure and automatically reconcile the same.

Bank Account Verification: Cashfree helps identify if the name of the account holder and if the bank account number is correct.

About Cashfree

Cashfree is a payments and banking technology company that enables businesses in India to collect and send money around the clock. Founded by IIIT Hyderabad alumnus Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta, Cashfree enables more than 50,000 businesses with payments collections, vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty and rewards. Incubated by payments pioneer Paypal, Cashfree is backed by Smilegate and Y Combinator.