Card tokenization deadline extended till 30 September
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has deferred for a second time the implementation of tokenisation of cards for online transactions by three months till September, after industry stakeholders highlighted problems about the guidelines.
“The industry stakeholders have highlighted some issues related to implementation of the framework in respect of guest checkout transactions. Also, the number of transactions processed using tokens is yet to gain traction across all categories of merchants. These issues are being dealt with in consultation with the stakeholders and to avoid disruption and inconvenment ience to cardholders, the Reserve Bank has today announced extension of the said timeline of 30 June by three months to 30 September,” the RBI said.
The industry should utilise this time to prepare all stakeholders to be ready for handling tokenised transactions, implean alternate mechanism to handle all post-transaction activities related to guest checkout transactions, and also create awareness about the process of creating tokens and using them to undertake transactions, the RBI said.
It also encouraged card holders to tokenise cards for their own safety. Till date, about 195 million tokens have been created. Opting for creation of tokens is voluntary. Those who do not wish to create a token can continue to transact as before by entering card details manually at the time of undertaking transactions. The RBI issued fresh guidelines in September 2021, giving companies until the end of the year to comply with the regulations and offering them the option to tokenise.