Banks can offer mobile-based services only to their own customers. Banks should have a system of registration before commencing mobile-based payment service to a customer, RBI said.

The levels of mobile banking services are divided into two categories. The first category includes information like balance enquiry, SMS alert for credit or debit, status of the last five transactions and others. The second involves the financial transactions such as payments, transfer and stop payments.

The risk involved in carrying out financial transactions through mobile banking is pretty higher. For avoiding the risk associated with either of the level, RBI has made a one-time registration through a signed document mandatory before commencing the mobile-based payment service to a customer.

The service is restricted to the Indian rupee. For mobile payments, the technology used must be secure and should ensure confidentiality, integrity and authenticity.

RBI said the message formats being developed by the Mobile Payments Forum of India should be used to ensure inter-operability between banks and between their mobile payment service providers.

Banks may sign multilateral and bilateral agreements for fund transfer transactions and create mobile switches and inter-bank payment gateways with permission from RBI. This is being done with a view to create an infrastructure on a pan-India basis.