During his RBI monetary policy speech on Friday, September 30, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the guidelines for online payment aggregators would be extended to offline players as well.
He said payment aggregators play an important role in the payments ecosystem and hence were brought under regulations in March 2020 and designated as Payment System Operators (PSOs).
The PSO guidelines seek to regulate the activities of online payment aggregators while providing baseline technology-related recommendations.
But the current regulations are applicable only to payment aggregators processing online or e-commerce transactions. "These regulations do not cover offline payment aggregators who handle proximity/face-to-face transactions and play a significant role in the spread of digital payments," Das said. "Keeping in view the similar nature of activities undertaken by online and offline payment aggregators, it is proposed to apply the current regulations to offline players as well."
The Reserve Bank of India expects this measure to bring synergy in regulation covering activities and operations of payment aggregators apart from convergence on standards of data collection and storage.
Detailed instructions would be issued separately by the Reserve Bank.
The latest update in the guidelines stated that neither the authorised payment aggregators nor the merchants on-boarded by them could store customer card credentials within their database or server.
RBI to also relax internet banking norms for regional rural lenders
The governor also spoke about expanding internet banking facilities for customers of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). The RRBs are currently allowed to provide internet banking to their customers with prior approval of the Reserve Bank, subject to fulfilling certain financial and non-financial criteria.
"Keeping in view the need to promote the spread of digital banking in rural areas, the criteria for RRBs to be eligible to provide internet banking are being rationalised, and guidelines are being issued separately," he said.
First Published: Sept 30, 2022 11:40 AM IST
