On October 8, 2021, the Reserve Bank announced the opening of the ‘On Tap’ application facility for the theme ‘retail payments’ under the Regulatory Sandbox. The RBI has chosen the following two entities for the test phase:
HDFC Bank (in partnership with Crunchfish AB1): The product ‘Offline Retail Payments’ provides capability for customers and merchants to be able to pay and receive payments in offline mode. The solution aims to boost adoption of digital payments in areas of no or low network by enabling transactions without the need to have a network connection.
Precision Biometric India: The product ‘InnaIT Key Solution for Banking’ offers a solution enabling biometric tokens which can be used for secure password-less authentication and Additional Factor Authentication (AFA), instead of an OTP, for logging into internet/ mobile banking. The solution combines public key infrastructure (PKI) and biometric to enhance security and user experience in the digital payments space.
Based upon the feedback received from various stakeholders, and in order to foster continuous innovation in various areas pertaining to fintech as well as to provide testing platform to the different products/ services/ technology, it is announced that the fifth cohort under Regulatory Sandbox will be theme neutral. Innovative products/services/technologies cutting across various functions in RBI’s regulatory domain will be eligible to apply. As per the enabling framework for Regulatory Sandbox, the Second Cohort on ‘Cross Border Payments’ is now also open for ‘On Tap’ application.
