Offline Payment Service Providers To Come Under RBI Regulatory Purview
Offline payment service providers will now come under the regulatory purview of the Reserve Bank of India. These payment service providers help in face-to-face transactions at the stores. The announcement was made by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday.
Payment 'aggregator' means a service provider who integrates all the 'online' payment options together and brings them on a single platform for the merchants. Das said after the announcement of the bi-monthly monetary review, that the nature of activities of online and offline payment aggregators (PAs) are similar. In such a situation, it is proposed to apply the existing regulation to offline PAs also.
Das said that after this step there will be integration of standards for data collection and storage. In such a situation, such companies will not be able to store the credit and debit card details of the customer. The Governor said that PAs have an important role in the payment environment and that is why they were brought under regulation in March, 2020 and given the status of Payment System Operator (PSO).
He said the existing regulations are applicable only to those PAs that facilitate online or e-commerce transactions. Offline PAs were not yet covered under this. Das also said that the RBI is rationalizing the eligibility criteria for providing internet banking facility for Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) keeping in view the need to promote digital banking in rural areas.
