RBI working on payment systems vision document

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in the process of preparing a new Payment Systems Vision document, Deputy Governor R. Gandhi said on Tuesday.

"The Reserve Bank is working on the next Payment Systems Vision document. In this context, it is also imperative that market participants also continue to take serious interest in developing the payment systems," he said at an event organised by National Payments Corporation of India here.

The payments landscape in India is changing fast and the key elements are the regulatory focus on creating robuse payments infrastructure, technology enabling solutions and others, said Gandhi, adding that the interoperability of the technology is the key and critical ingredient for evolving a larger payment ecosystems.

"The retail payments in the next 3-5 years are likely to be driven essentially through mobile payments. This is to ride on over one billion mobile connections in the country and the financial Inclusion drive," he said.

Citing the availability of the digital payment channels in tier I and II cities, Gandhi said it is important that population of over six lakh villages in India is exposed to alternate delivery channels.

He said electronic benefit transfer is a clear strategy to promote efficient payment systems.

Apart from interoperability of technological systems, Gandhi said the end customers need to have simple ways of accessing digital channels while making the channels safe and secure to build the customer confidence on using digital payment channels.