NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Digital wallets such as Paytm and MobiKwik are set to become inter-operable as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prepares to open up the Unified Payment Interface platform for them as part of the government’s digitisation campaign.

RBI is expected to issue guidelines shortly on interoperability and ‘know your customer’ (KYC) norms for digital wallet companies, according to two people familiar with the developments.

RBI will also decide on the interchange fees between the wallets for them to be able to access the UPI framework, they said, declining to be identified.

“The opening up of the UPI framework and, in turn, the permission to allow interoperability between wallets is something the RBI is looking into very seriously and should be able to activate in 2-3 months,” one of them said. Digital wallets can currently access the UPI network through partner banks to facilitate bank-to-bank money transfers.