RBI’s ‘Payments Vision 2025’ aims to establish India as a powerhouse of payments globally, say experts

The Reserve Bank’s ‘Payments Vision 2025’ document, which seeks a three-fold jump in the number of digital payments, is progressive and aims to establish India as a powerhouse of payments globally, opined industry players.

The RBI on Friday came out with its ‘Payments Vision 2025’ document which also talks about ring-fencing of domestic payment systems, including the need to mandate domestic processing of payment transactions, in view of the emerging geopolitical risks.

The core theme of the vision documents is ‘E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere, Everytime’ (4Es), with an overall objective to provide every user with safe, secure, fast, convenient, accessible, and affordable e-payment options.

Commenting on the document, Rajesh Mirjankar, MD and CEO, Kiya.ai, said the Payments Vision 2025 is progressive and has an outlook to establish India as a powerhouse of payments globally.

“One of the most important forward-looking initiatives is the global outreach of UPI, RTGS, NEFT and RuPay cards with internationalisation, where bilateral treaties with nations especially covering the USD, GBP and Euro will hugely benefit Indian residents and their counterparties overseas with online realisation at lesser costs,” said Mirjankar.

Dilip Modi, founder of Spice Money, said while the pandemic raged across the country, India was on a path to realising its payments vision, and digital payments grew phenomenally in volume and popularity, with a constant thrust from the government and the rise of rural fintechs.

It is heartening to note that the RBI takes measures that will further enhance safety and security for rural citizens, where digital and financial literacy continues to be core challenges, he said.

V Swaminathan, Executive Chairman, Andromeda Loans and Apnapaisa, said the RBI came out with its Payments Vision 2025 document to check the flow of cash in distribution and enhance the overall digital transactions in the country.

“Overall, the RBI seems to be pushing digital transactions and reducing the time taken in various settlements. With the UPI on its side, the momentum is on the rise and the nation looks forward to having multiple options to transact irrespective of the quantum of the amount to be transacted,” he said.

Anand Kumar Bajaj, founder, MD and CEO of PayNearby, was of the opinion that inclusion and innovation are two of the crucial goal-posts of the document put out by the RBI.

“To pursue the collective goal of financial inclusion for all, it is crucial to deepen our engagement with stakeholders and extend our outreach deeper into the real economy.

“Therefore, engaging with private enterprises that are present in the lives of people and driving commerce up to the bottom of the pyramid is important,” Kumar noted.

Avinash Godkhindi, MD and CEO, Zaggle, said India has made phenomenal strides in payments in the last few years, UPI and RuPay being the biggest success stories.

“Now taking them global will clearly establish India as the undisputed global leader in payments. Linking credit cards to UPI is another gamechanger as would globalisation of India’s Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs),” said Godkhindi.

As per the RBI, total digital payments have increased by 216 per cent and 10 per cent in terms of volume and value, respectively, for the month of March 2022 when compared to March 2019.

On the other hand, usage of paper instruments has come down significantly during the same period, with its share in total retail payments registering a decline from 3.83 per cent to 0.88 per cent in terms of volume and from 19.62 per cent to 11.47 per cent in terms of value.

While issuing the document, the central bank had said ‘Payments Vision 2025’ has been prepared after considering the inputs from various stakeholders and guidance from the Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems of the RBI.

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CVC-constituted panel ABBFF gives advice on 84 bank fraud cases

Headed by former Vigilance Commissioner T M Bhasin, ABBFF was set up in August 2019, by CVC in consultation with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for conducting first-level of examination in the cases of frauds reported by Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Public Sector Financial Institutions (PSFIs) before these cases were reported to the external investigative agencies viz. CBI, etc.

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CVC-constituted panel ABBFF gives advice on 84 bank fraud cases

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) constituted panel — Advisory Board for Banking and Financial Frauds (ABBFF) — has given its advice after thorough examination of role of all levels of officials on 84 bank fraud cases involving amount of over Rs 3 crore in the last three years.

Headed by former Vigilance Commissioner T M Bhasin, ABBFF was set up in August 2019, by CVC in consultation with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for conducting first-level of examination in the cases of frauds reported by Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Public Sector Financial Institutions (PSFIs) before these cases were reported to the external investigative agencies viz. CBI, etc.

Earlier in January this year, the ambit of the panel was expanded to conduct first-level examination of large bank fraud cases involving amount of over Rs 3 crore, as against mandate of Rs 50 crore. Since its formation, ABBFF has received 92 references from different organisations. Out of which, advice has since been tendered for 84 cases and other eight cases are proposed to be discussed later this week, sources said.

Out of the same, 67 cases have been received by the panel since January, 2022, i.e. after revision in the scope of reference.
Additionally, sources said, nine references have been received from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for seeking advice of the panel and the same has been duly tendered within the scope/purview of the Advisory Board.

While dealing with the cases, sources said, ABBFF scrupulously examines each case critically to undertake threadbare discussions with concerned CVO (Nodal Officer) so as to ascertain whether there is any criminality or malafide intent discernible at all.

The Bhasin panel frequently interacts with the CVOs and MD and CEOs of the concerned public sector organisations to elicit their views with regard to ease of making reference and the operations of the board.

Bhasin, a veteran banker, served as vigilance commissioner in the CVC for four years from June 2015 to June 2019. Prior to vigilance commissioner, he was chairman and managing director of Chennai-based Indian Bank for more than five years. Based on the feedback from various sources it has been gathered that with the setting up of the ABBFF, confidence level of the officials of these financial institutions has gone up considerably resulting into improved sentiments for sanction of loans, credit dispensation and overall credit growth in the economy, sources said.

As per RBI latest data growth in lending by public sector banks (PSBs) has improved significantly to 7.8 per cent in March, 2022 from 3.6 per cent a year ago.

It was observed that a sense of ‘fear of unwarranted hardships’ existed among the officials of PSBs on decisions taken by them in normal course of their working, resulting into reluctance or undue delay in sanctioning of the loans and taking financial decisions, ultimately affecting the growth of the economy as a whole.

The idea to establish ABBFF was to remove the fear of witch hunting and actions based on hindsight, among officials of these financial institutions.

ABBFF is thus serving the purpose to function as a ‘Safety Valve’ for the officials by critically and comprehensively examining the gravity of lapses, accountability, so that a well-considered and justified decision could be taken before the outside agencies haul up the concerned officials, for connivance, complicity or malafide intent.

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