APB Subsidy – Aadhaar Payment Bridge

APB System is a unique payment system implemented by NPCI that uses Aadhaar number as a central key for electronically channelizing Government subsidies and benefits into Aadhaar Enabled Bank Accounts (AEBA) of intended beneficiaries. It is based on Aadhaar numbers issued by UIDAI and IIN (Institution Identification Number) issued by NPCI, and is used by Government Departments and Agencies for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

APB System sub-serves the goal of Financial Inclusion and enables the Government to attempt financial re-engineering of its subsidy management program. It has led to electronification of a large number of retail payment transactions that were previously done in cash or cheque.

APB System uses Aadhaar number as a central key for electronically channelizing Government benefits and subsidies into Aadhaar Enabled Bank Accounts (AEBA) of intended beneficiaries. The Aadhaar number uniquely identifies the destination bank through the NPCI mapper.

NPCI mapper is a repository of Aadhaar numbers maintained by APB System for routing transactions to destination banks. It contains each customer's Aadhaar number along with the IIN of their bank. Banks upload Aadhaar numbers through the NACH portal.

NPCI mapper links Aadhaar numbers to bank IINs. APB System routes each transaction to the bank whose IIN is mapped against the beneficiary's Aadhaar number.

Participating banks collect Aadhaar numbers from customers, seed them in the Core Banking System (CBS), and regularly upload them to the NPCI mapper.

No. NPCI only stores Aadhaar numbers and IINs. Bank account numbers, IFS codes, or branch addresses are not maintained in NPCI mapper.

APB System will reject transactions for records where the Aadhaar number is not available in NPCI mapper at the time the sponsor bank uploads the input file.

IIN (Institution Identification Number) is a unique 6-digit number issued by NPCI to each APB participating bank. It is not necessary for the sponsor bank to include the IIN for each Aadhaar number in the input file.

The previous mapping gets overwritten. NPCI mapper always uses the IIN of the bank where the customer most recently seeded their Aadhaar number to route benefits and subsidies.

NPCI does not provide direct access to customers. LPG consumers can check via the OMC transparency portal. Banks and Government Departments can use the Aadhaar Lookup facility provided by NPCI to check Active, Inactive, Invalid, or Not Present status.

No. APB System remains closed on Sundays and RTGS holidays declared by the Reserve Bank of India.

Yes, banks must encrypt the mapper file before uploading. However, the mapper file does not need to be approved or authorised after uploading.

The input file capacity is 1,00,000 (one lakh) records per input file.

User Name and User Number are provided by NPCI based on the User Registration Form submitted by the Government Department or Agency through its sponsor bank.

Yes. Banks require Class II Digital Certificates for individual users, procurable from any authorised CA including IDRBT. Required for digitally signing APB System files.

Yes. A Signing Tool is required for encryption and decryption of files in the NACH System. It must be configured with RAW or PKCS#7 algorithm.

Banks can connect through NPCINet or Internet. For Internet access, banks must share a Static IP address which is enabled in NPCI's firewall.

The settlement file is submitted to DAD of RBI through the RTGS gateway. Settlement is effected based on the IFS code of participating banks.

Banks without RTGS membership can participate via sub-membership through a bank with RTGS membership. APB System credits the sponsor bank's settlement account, and the sponsor bank passes credits to the sub-member bank's current account.

The sponsor bank receives "S0002: Settlement Report" which contains separate settlement entries for the sponsor bank and each indirect/sub-member bank.