Definition
NACH e-Mandate
A NACH e-mandate is an electronic authorisation that lets a company auto-debit recurring amounts — EMIs, SIPs, premiums — from your bank account through the National Automated Clearing House.
NACH, run by NPCI, automates bulk and recurring debits and credits. An e-mandate is the paperless version: you authorise a biller once (via net banking or debit-card authentication) to debit a maximum amount on a set frequency, after which collections happen automatically.
It powers loan EMIs, mutual fund SIPs, insurance premiums and utility auto-pays for amounts and use cases beyond UPI AutoPay's typical scope. You can cancel or amend a mandate through your bank.
NACH also handles bulk credits like salary, dividend and subsidy disbursals, making it core infrastructure for both collections and payouts across India.
Related terms
- UPI AutoPayUPI AutoPay is an NPCI feature that lets you set up recurring payment mandates on a UPI app so approved sums are auto-debited for subscriptions, SIPs, bills and EMIs.
- BBPSThe Bharat Bill Payment System is an NPCI-operated, interoperable platform that lets you pay almost any recurring bill — utilities, loans, insurance, taxes — from a single trusted system.
- ECSElectronic Clearing Service is a legacy bank mechanism for repetitive bulk electronic transfers, used historically for dividends, salaries and recurring debits before NACH replaced much of it.
Plain-English explainer from The Dispatch Investors Encyclopedia. General information, not financial advice.