RBI to soon come up with vision document on payment systems

RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi declines to specify if the new document would continue with the tradition of covering a three-year period or increase it to five

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon be releasing a new vision document for the development of payment systems in the country, which will spell out the broader direction of regulation, its Deputy Governor R Gandhi said on Tuesday.

“The Reserve Bank is working on the next payment system vision document...now we are working out the next vision document which will cover what are the developmental initiatives the RBI should be encouraging the industry to do,” he said speaking at a National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) event here. He said RBI had been bringing out such vision documents for payment systems since 1998 and they have been covering a period of three years each. Preparing a new document is necessary as the current one ends in 2015, Gandhi added.

He, however, declined to specify if the new document would continue with the tradition of covering a three-year period or increase it to five.

When asked about timelines and by when to expect the new document, he said it would be released soon.

In the vision statement in the ongoing document, RBI had stated that the aim was to “pro-actively encourage electronic payment systems for ushering in a less-cash society in India and to ensure payment and settlement systems in the country are safe, efficient, interoperable, authorised, accessible, inclusive and compliant with international standards”. Gandhi said there is a need to increase the number of point of sale machines to 20 million from the present 12 million. He further said in the next three to five years, the mobile devices will dominate the growth in retail payments.

Meanwhile, on strategic debt restructuring, Gandhi hinted that RBI was open to tweaking the newly introduced provision which allows lenders to take majority stakes in troubled borrowers.

“Any regulation we tweak it based on feedback. Whenever it is hurting them, we will take it in. It is a continuous process, there is no time limit,” he added.

Gandhi, however, did not specify the concerns faced by banks at present.