NPT — National Payment Tag

NPT (National Payment Tag) is the payment identity layer of OpenWave. It lets you send money to a person using only their username — no IBAN required.

The Concept

Inspired by how email works. You know someone's email address; the @domain part routes the message to the right provider. NPT works the same way for payments.

mtellesy             →  routes to default bank account
mtellesy@andalus     →  routes to Andalus Bank specifically
mtellesy@nub         →  routes to NUB specifically

A person owns a username and can link accounts from multiple banks to it. The @bank-handle suffix is optional — if omitted, the payment goes to their default account regardless of which bank that is.

Key Properties

Property	Detail
Globally unique	One username per person across the entire ecosystem
Multi-bank	Link accounts from any participating bank
Portable	Change your default without sharing a new IBAN
Bank-vouched	Claimed through your bank's existing KYC process
Routing-only	The registry stores only routing data — no balances, no history
First-come, first-served	A handle is yours once claimed, until voluntarily released

How Claiming Works

1. Customer visits their bank's app and chooses a username (e.g. mtellesy)
2. Bank verifies the customer is KYC-approved (already done at onboarding)
3. Bank calls the Identity Registry: POST /v1/identity/claim
4. Registry checks uniqueness and registers mtellesy → { bank: "andalus", iban: "LY..." }
5. Customer now receives payments at mtellesy from anywhere in the ecosystem

How Resolution Works

Sending money to an NPT alias:

Sender types: mtellesy

1. Gateway calls: GET /v1/identity/resolve?alias=mtellesy
   ← { iban: "LY83002700100099900001", bank_handle: "andalus" }

2. Gateway routes payment to Andalus Bank with that IBAN

Resolution is public — no authentication required. The endpoint is designed to be fast and heavily cached (60-second TTL).

Adding Multiple Banks

Once you have a handle, you can link additional bank accounts:

mtellesy           →  andalus (default)
mtellesy@nub       →  nub
mtellesy@wahda     →  wahda

Merchants or senders don't need to know which bank you use. They just use mtellesy.

Format Rules

Rule	Example
3–30 characters	✅ mtellesy, ✅ ahmed
Lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens	✅ ahmed_123, ✅ my-store
Must start with a letter or number	✅ ahmed, ❌ _ahmed
No spaces	❌ ahmed ali

Bank Handle Format

Bank handles follow the same rules and are issued when a bank registers with the gateway.

@andalus    →  Andalus Bank
@nub        →  National Union Bank
@wahda      →  Wahda Bank

Compared to Other Systems

System	What you share	Portable?	Multi-bank?
IBAN transfer	Full IBAN (24 chars)	✗	✗
Phone-based transfer	Phone number	✗	✗
NPT (OpenWave)	Short username	✅	✅
Email (for reference)	Email address	✅	N/A