You can soon directly transfer money from one digital wallet to other

You will soon be able to directly transfer money from one digital wallet to other, irrespective of the service provider. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to make interoperability mandatory for full-KYC (know your customer) prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) and for all acceptance infrastructure.

"To promote optimal utilisation of payment instruments (like cards, wallets etc.), and given the constraint of scarce acceptance infrastructure (like PoS devices, ATMs, QR codes, bill-payment touch points, etc.), Reserve Bank of India has been stressing on the benefits of interoperability amongst the issuing and acquiring entities alike, banks or non-banks," the central bank said in its statement on developmental and regulatory policies released on Wednesday as part of its bi-monthly policy review.

RBI said it had laid down a road-map for a phased implementation of interoperability amongst PPIs issued by banks and non-banks in October 2017. Through guidelines issued in October 2018, RBI had enabled interoperability, albeit on a voluntary basis, insofar as the PPIs were full-KYC.

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"Despite a passage of two years, migration towards full-KYC PPIs, and therefore interoperability, is not significant. It is, therefore, proposed to make interoperability mandatory for full-KYC PPIs and for all acceptance infrastructure," it said.

Currently, customers can transfer money from a wallet to another if both are on the same platform. While money can be transferred from one wallet to another on a different platform, it normally takes place through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) where the wallet is linked to a bank account. Once the new framework is put in place, money can be transferred seamlessly from one wallet to another on a different platform.

To incentivise the migration of PPIs to full-KYC, RBI also proposed to increase the limit of outstanding balance in such PPIs from the current level of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. The central bank said it will separately issue necessary instructions for the same.

The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee on Wednesday kept repo rate unchanged and maintained an 'accommodative' stance as the economy faces a renewed threat to growth due to the resurgence of coronavirus cases.

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