Central bank allows PPI interoperability

NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will allow interoperability among ‘know your customer’-compliant prepaid payment instruments (PPI), including mobile wallets, within six months of issuing revised rules, in an attempt to make electronic payments seamless. The new rules are expected by October 11.

“Inter-operability amongst Kyc-compliant PPIS shall be implemented within six months of the date of issuance of the revised Master Directions, which will be issued within a week, i.e., by October 11, 2017,” RBI said in a statement on Wednesday.

KYC is a process through which banks and other financial institutions obtain and verify information about customers’ identity and address to ensure th

Currently, a person who has a Paytm wallet, for example, can’t make a payment from his wallet to one run by a rival company. That will change after the new rules are introduced.

“This will be a major game changer primarily for the merchants with physical outlets who have to go through the process of sign-ups for different wallets that they accept payments from,” said Sunil Kulkarni, joint MD at Oxigen Services (India) Pvt Ltd., an e-wallet and payment solutions company. Interoperability might eventually pave way for Unified Payments Interface getting introduced for wallets too, added Kulkarni.