RBI sets up fund to improve digital payments systems

The Reserve Bank of India has set up a Payment Infrastructure Development Fund (PIFD) with `5 billion corpus to improve and support the development of the digital payments ecosystem in the northeast and rural districts in India. The initial contribution of `2.5 billion to the fund has been made by the central bank while the other half of the fund is expected to be contributed by all card-issuing banks and the network operators. The fund will be governed through an advisory council and it will be administered and managed by the RBI. PIFD will have the objective of encouraging acquirers to deploy PoS infrastructure in both the digital and physical modes in tier-3 to tier-6 centers and northeastern states.