Reserve Bank Of India Modifies Penalties For Regulatory Non-Compliance

In order to enhance and ensure security and safety for all stakeholders — including, most critically, customers — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last Friday modified the penalties for payment system operators who do not follow regulatory requirements.

India’s payment system landscape has experienced notable developments recently: amplified technology usage, increased availability of payment products, more nonbank players entering the market, dis-intermediation, a dramatic swelling in turnover and more.

“To ensure that the payment systems are safe and secure and the various stakeholders conform to regulatory requirements, on review it has been decided to revise the process of levy of penalty on payment system operators by the Reserve Bank of India,” the RBI said while issuing the revised framework.

The monetary penalty amount will vary depending on the impact and will take various factors into consideration, etc.

“The amount of monetary penalty for a contravention shall not exceed Rs 5 lakh or double the amount of contravention, whichever is higher, where such amount is quantifiable,” it said.

Not all recent RBI moves have been punitive, however. The bank recently made some changes with National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) in the country.

RBI will allow non-bank prepaid payments (PPIs) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to link to FASTags, used to pay for transactions like tolls and parking.

The RBI said in an official statement: “In order to further broad base this system by allowing more payment choices for the customers, as well as for fostering competition among the system participants, all authorized payment systems and instruments non-bank PPIs, cards and (UPI) shall from now be permitted for linking with the FASTags, which can be used for various types of payments (vehicle toll, parking fee, etc).”