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

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday directed financial companies to make know-your-customer-compliant prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) such as mobile wallets interoperable within the next six months.

“In the first phase, PPI issuers (both bank and non-bank entities) shall make all KYC-compliant PPIs issued in the form of wallets interoperable amongst themselves through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) within six months from the date of issue of this direction,” RBI said.

UPI is a payments system launched by National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) in August 2016 that facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on a mobile platform, without having any details of the beneficiary’s bank. KYC is a process through which financial institutions verify information about customers to ensure services are not misused.

Photo courtesy of Simone McCourtie.