BENGALURU: State-run Canara Bank's two sponsored regional rural banks (RRBs) in Kerala and Karnataka launched an immediate payment service through the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

"The innovative facility will enable customers of Kerala Gramin Bank and Pragathi Krishna Gramin Bank to send and receive payments from their mobile handset round-the-clock and throughout the year," NPCI chairman M. Balachandran told reporters.

As an affordable payment mechanism to benefit common man across the country and help financial inclusion, NPCI was set up in 2009 as a not-for-profit organization with 300-crore authorized capital and 100-crore paid-up capital by six state-run, two private and two overseas banks as its co-financers.

"The two RRBs are first in the southern region to provide the unique inter-bank remittance processing service through our network using mobile, internet and ATM (automatic teller machine) on 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Balachandran said on the occasion.

Kerala Gramin Bank operates in all the 14 districts of Kerala through 565 branches, 157 banking kiosks (Akshaya centres), three BCA (banking business correspondents) and 202 ATMs.

With 20,940 crore business in fiscal 2014-15, KGB ranks top among the 55 RRBs across the country.

Pragathi Krishna Gramin Bank operates in 11 of the 30 districts across north and east Karnataka with 645 branches, 881 BCAs and 210 ATMs. It ranks second among all the RRBs, with 19,467-crore business in last fiscal (FY 2015).

READ MORE: Top 10 Best Cloud Storage Services 2015 and Here's How Apple iOS 9 Can Be Downloaded For iPhone, iPad