Soon, no OTP for e-mandates up to `15K

Soon, no OTP, or other additional factor of authentication (AFA), will be required for making recurring payments above Rs 5,000 through e-mandate on both debit and credit cards. The RBI has proposed to increase the limit for e-mandates on cards from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000. Instructions in this regard will be issued by the central bank, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said in his bi-monthly monetary policy statement.

Experts said that raising the limit for e-mandate on cards will facilitate the payment of larger value transactions like housing loans, insurance premiums or any kind of subscriptions. “The framework on processing of emandate based recurring payments, inter-alia, provides for an additional factor of authentication during registration, sending a pre-debit notification, subsequent recurring transactions to be executed without AFA, and an easier avenue to withdraw such mandates,” said Das.

“Till date, over 6.25 crore mandates have been registered under this framework, including for over 3,400 international merchants. Requests have been received from stakeholders to increase the limit under the framework to facilitate payments of larger value like subscriptions, insurance premia, education fee, etc. To further augment customer convenience and leverage the benefits available under the framework, it is proposed to enhance the limit from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 per recurring payment,” said the RBI statement.

Dewang Neralla, CEO of NTT Data Payment Services India, said, “Increased limit will lead to increased convenience for the consumers as well as businesses in monthly pay-outs done for paying school/college fees, electricity bill payments, mobile payments...The mandatory notification 24 hours prior to the autodebit shall ensure that the consumer is warned ahead in time to maintain the requisite card balances.”