Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), an India-based private lender, has entered into an agreement with Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee of Golden Temple in Amritsar to provide online donation service through its payment gateway.
The website provides a number of payment options to the devotees, including NRIs, to make their offerings such as direct debit to their accounts with the HDFC, pay by a debit card or a credit card of any bank. There will be no restriction to the minimum and maximum amount of donation.
The bank currently facilitates online donation service to 37 places of worship for different religions in India and talks are said to be on to bring more into the fold.
A Rajan, country head of operations of HDFC Bank in India, said: “India is a spiritually enlightened country and HDFC Bank has always used technology that touches lives of our customers in all the spheres. This tie-up will enable lakhs of devotees of Golden Temple spread across the world, to conveniently send their offerings to the holy shrine using HDFC Bank’s secured net banking services. It also enables the devotees to select the specific purpose for which the donation is made.”
Mr Rajan added that some religious units were not allowed to maintain account with non-government banks, so the bank with the help of Real Time Gross Sharing (RTGS) transferred funds into their account.