RBI has proposed to make interoperability mandatory for full-KYC prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) and all acceptance infrastructure. RBI announced the development while presenting the first bi-monthly monetary policy for FY22 earlier today.
Further, RBI has decided to incentivise the migration of PPIs to full-KYC and for which it has proposed to increase the limit of the outstanding balance in such PPIs from the current level of Rs1 lakh to Rs2 lakh.
In its Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies statement, RBI said, "To promote optimal utilisation of payment instruments (like cards, wallets etc.), and given the constraint of scarce acceptance infrastructure (like PoS devices, ATMs, QR codes, bill-payment touchpoints, etc.), Reserve Bank of India has been stressing on the benefits of interoperability amongst the issuing and acquiring entities alike, banks or non-banks."
RBI laid down a roadmap for a phased implementation of interoperability amongst PPIs issued by banks and non-banks in the Master Direction on Issuance and Operation of PPIs dated October 11, 2017.
Later, in October 2018, RBI also issued guidelines that enabled interoperability, albeit voluntarily, insofar as the PPIs were full-KYC (they met all Know Your Customer requirements). Despite a passage of two years, migration towards full-KYC PPIs, and therefore interoperability, is not significant.
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