Payments Regulatory Board takes up issues in payment systems in 1st meeting

The Payments Regulatory Board (PRB), chaired by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra, held its first ever meeting on Monday, where the board reviewed the functions of the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (DPSS) and discussed key focus areas across domestic and global payment systems.

 

Additionally, the draft Payments Vision 2028 was presented at the meeting. The members offered strategic guidance to support the continued development of India’s payments ecosystem, the RBI said in a release.

 

“The board was also briefed on the major findings of the RBI’s recently conducted survey on digital payments,” the central bank said.

 

The meeting was attended by S. Krishnan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology; Nagaraju Maddirala, secretary, Department of Financial Services; Aruna Sundararajan, IAS (Retd.); T. Rabi Sankar, RBI deputy governor and Vivek Deep, executive director, RBI.

 

In a major overhaul of the payments ecosystem, the PRB was constituted, replacing RBI’s Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS).

 

PRB includes the secretary, Department of Financial Services; secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY); and retired IAS officer Sundararajan as its three external members nominated by the government.

 

The RBI governor is the chairperson of the board, and includes the central bank’s deputy governor and executive director in charge of payments and settlement systems as members.

 

Additionally, the principal legal adviser of the RBI will be a permanent invitee to the meetings of the PRB.

 

In a notification in May, the government had said the PRB will replace the BPSS of the RBI.

 

The BPSS was a committee of the central board of the RBI that exercised powers on its behalf, to regulate and supervise the payment and settlement systems in the country.

 

The new regulatory entity, PRB, will be assisted by the DPSS, a department in the RBI.

 

Additionally, the PRB may invite persons with experience in the fields of payment and settlement systems, information technology and law, among others, to attend its meeting either as permanent or ad hoc invitees.

 

The PRB is required to meet at least twice in a year, and the meetings will be presided by the chairperson, or in his absence, the deputy governor.

 

The notification states that each member of the board will have one vote, and if any item of business requires voting, then such an item will be decided by a majority of votes.

 

In the event of equal votes, the chairperson, or in his absence, the deputy governor, will have a second or casting vote.