The Reserve Bank of India's Payments Vision 2028 aims to revolutionise the digital payments landscape with electronic cheques, enhanced security measures, and expanded regulations for e-commerce, ensuring a safer and more efficient financial ecosystem.
The Reserve Bank on Friday introduced the 'Payments Vision 2028' document, announcing various initiatives like introducing electronic cheques and also widening the regulatory ambit to include entities such as e-commerce companies.
A facility for the remitter to enable or disable transactions on any digital payment mode, similar to card transactions, is also on the anvil.
Introducing a "shared responsibility framework" would also be explored under which both the customer's bank (issuer) and the beneficiary's bank jointly bear the liability arising from unauthorised digital payment transactions, the document said.
On the cheques front, the RBI said plans are afoot to review the design and security features for fraud prevention, apart from introducing electronic cheques.
"To leverage the unique benefits of paper-based instruments and the speed and reliability of electronic payments, and cater to new business use cases, the introduction of electronic cheques in India shall be explored," the RBI said.
Elaborating on the move to widen the payment entities under the regulatory ambit, the document said several entities are playing a critical role in digital payments facilitation.
"In addition, e-commerce marketplaces and centralized platforms have been assuming significant responsibilities that could have implications on the orderly functioning of the payments ecosystem. These aspects shall be examined in detail and, if required, the scope of direct regulations shall be extended to cover such entities," the RBI document said.
For non-bank Payment System Operators (PSOs) a Cyber Key Risk Indicators (KRI) framework is proposed to implement a consistent, data-driven approach to risk-based IT supervision of payment system operators, it said.
The central bank will also explore introducing white-label solutions in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) and bringing such assisted payment providers within the regulatory fold.
As part of its efforts to prevent fraud, the RBI is also planning to implement a uniform Domestic Legal Entity Identifier (DLEI) framework that would enable the identification of parties to a transaction.
The RBI is also looking at introducing a 'Payments Switching Service', which will facilitate migration of customers and help banking customers, as there will be minimal friction.
A framework for interoperability in TReDS (Trade Receivables e-Discounting System) is also proposed to be developed to promote an integrated, efficient, and accessible receivables discounting ecosystem, the document said.
The central bank is also considering coming out with reports on cross-border payments, which will focus on "domestic trends, global developments, and strategic implications for India's payment ecosystem", it said.
A review of the cross-border payments ecosystem with an objective to increase efficiency of cross-border payments and streamlining cross-border payment authorization to enhance ease of doing business is also being considered to be introduced by 2028.
The RBI is also looking to facilitate enhanced access to payment data, given the significant growth in recent years, which will also serve as a single point of access for cross-border payment data.
It is seeking to reimagine the card payments ecosystem in the country to empower cardholders and merchants with choice, introduce secure and smart tokenisation and orchestration, and facilitate transparent pricing.