NPCI set to launch Asba-like facility for secondary market from January

Digital payments facility Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for secondary market trading is set to go live from January 1, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a release on Friday.

This facility is similar to Asba (applications supported by blocked amount), used for blocking funds and undertaking multiple debits, popular among investors to purchase shares during the IPO process. It will now be available for secondary market trading as well.

In the secondary market, securities are traded between individual investors and are not bought from the company directly.



NPCI said that the launch will be in the beta phase from January 1 for the equity cash segment and will be available for a limited set of customers. Banks, clearing houses and UPI apps will have to participate in this process to settle these UPI transactions.

During the pilot, investors can block funds in their bank accounts, which will only be debited by the clearing corporations upon trade confirmation during settlement. Clearing corporations will directly process payouts to these clients on a T+1 basis (i.e. a day after the payment is done).

The beta launch is being facilitated by financial services platform Groww as the brokerage app. UPI payment apps of BHIM, Groww, and YES Pay Next are going live in the first phase. Initially, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank customers will be able to avail this facility.

Other stakeholders, including stockbrokers such as Zerodha, banks like Axis Bank, Yes Bank and UPI-enabled apps like Paytm and PhonePe are in the certification stage and set to participate soon, NPCI said.