The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has sought the Reserve Bank's approval to make the payment services provided by telecom companies and the mobile wallet services offered by banks work with each other, a senior official said today.

"The idea is to make these different services inter- operable for the convenience of customers. We have approached the RBI to make payments services provided by various telcos work with each other. If we get the RBI approval, we will deploy the solution," NCPI Chief Manager, Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) Dheeraj Bharadwaj said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the fourth edition of the National Conference on Digital Commerce here.

Bharadwaj said around 39 banks had joined NCPI's IMPS platform so far and that foreign lenders, too, are expected to come on board. "We expect StanChart, HSBC Bank, Barclays Bank, DBS and RBS to join our IMPS in three months."

The company is also in the process of encouraging various e-commerce websites to adopt IMPS as one of the payment options.

"We have rolled out a solution where a customer will have to enter his mobile phone number as well as an 'MMID' number, which is of seven-digit, to identify the bank, besides an additional security parameter. E-commerce websites can include our service as one of the payment options," he said.

The company has begun enrolling clients for its point of sale (PoS) solution, which facilitates small payments.

"The solution is ideal for small establishments like a pizza delivery service, where a customer can get his debit card swiped on our PoS solution which can be taken to his residence," he said.