The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has unveiled Payments Vision 2025, with the core theme of ‘E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere, Everytime’ (4Es). It aims to provide every user with safe, secure, fast, convenient, accessible, and affordable e-payment options. The central bank has outlined five goals, which include attempting regulations for bigtechs and fintechs in the payment space as well as guidelines on payments involving BNPL services.
Payments Vision 2025 has been prepared after considering the inputs from various stakeholders and guidance from the Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems of the RBI. The activities to be taken up during the period up to 2025 as part of Vision 2025 are captured across five anchor goalposts of Integrity, Inclusion, Innovation, Institutionalisation and Internationalisation. They cover 47 specific initiatives and 10 expected outcomes.
The vision document builds on the initiatives of Payments Vision 2019-21. Payments Vision 2025 leverages India’s efforts and builds on the focus of G-20 to enhance cross-border payments by addressing the four key challenges of cost, speed, access, and transparency. Considering the current geo-political developments across the world, the Payments Vision 2025 document also seeks to address the potential risks arising out of any adverse situation that may arise.
Various initiatives proposed under the five goalposts will have the following 10 expected outcomes during the Vision period:
Volume of cheque-based payments to be less than 0.25% of the total retail payments
- More than 3x increase in number of digital payment transactions
- UPI to register average annualised growth of 50% and IMPS / NEFT at 20%
- Increase of payment transaction turnover vis-à-vis GDP to 8
- Increase in debit card transactions at PoS by 20%
- Debit card usage to surpass credit cards in terms of value
- Increase in PPI transactions by 150%
- Card acceptance infrastructure to increase to 250 lakh
- Increase of registered customer base for mobile based transactions by 50% CAGR
- Reduction in Cash in Circulation (CIC) as a percentage of GDP
Considering emerging concerns with OTP-based authentication in terms of increasing cases of phishing/vishing/smishing modes for divulgence of customer confidential details, alternate risk-based authentication mechanisms leveraging behavioural biometrics, location / historical payments, digital tokens, in-app notifications, and so on will be explored.
Scheduled commercial banks and non-bank PPI issuers use the CPFIR for reporting payment frauds. Access to urban co-operative banks and RRBs will be examined. Further, enhancements to the CPFIR in terms of creating negative database of fraudulent beneficiaries, analysing modus operandi of fraudsters, and publishing reports on trends in payment frauds, will be considered.
