RBI to set up a 24×7 helpline for Digital Payment Services

The Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, recently announced that the central bank will set up a 24*7 helpline platform in order to strengthen the digital payment services in India. This announcement was made through the Statement on Development and Regulatory policy.

Highlights

• RBI has come up with many safety and security features apart from the measures to redress the grievances of the users in the past as well.
• This announcement will further enhance the digital payments experience of users in India.
• The RBI released the Payment Systems Vision document.
• The document highlights the need of setting up a 24×7 helpline in order to address the customer queries with respect to the digital payment products.
• As per the guideline, major payment system operators are required to facilitate setting-up of a centralised 24×7 helpline to address the customer queries by September 2021.
• Apart from this helpline facility, guidelines will also be issued on the outsourcing for the Operators and Participants of Authorised Payment Systems.
• Further, RBI also announced to launch an Integrated Ombudsman Scheme for banks, NBFCs and digital transactions in June 2021.
• The scheme will be launched in order to simplify the grievance redressal process.

Significance of the helpline

The helpline will help in building the trust and confidence among the users.  It will also help in reducing the expenditure on both financial and human resources that are incurred while addressing the queries and grievances.

What was the need?

The digital payment in India is growing rapidly. A report states that, the Indian digital payment industry will reach to $1 trillion by 2023. The digital payment mode is further found the boost amid the covid-19 pandemic. But with the increasing trend of digital transaction, India is getting vulnerable to transaction fraud, cyberattacks etc. Thus, there is a need of such helpline to make the digital transaction environment secure for the users.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2021