BENCHMARKING INDIA'S PAYMENT SYSTEMS

About: 

• What is it? The report provides a comparative position of the payment system ecosystem in India relative to comparable payment systems and usage trends in other major countries.
  
  
• Background: The report comes following an announcement in the April monetary policy review, which spoke about the need to benchmark India's payments systems.
  
  
• Key Highlights of the report:
  • India is a "leader" in regulating costs of payments systems, number of debit cards issued and automated teller machines.
    
    
  • India is "strong" in areas like having necessary laws and cash in circulation per capita.
    
    
  • There has been substantial growth in e-payments by Government and also in digital infrastructure in terms of mobile networks.
    
    
  • However, India needs to make more efforts to decrease the volume of paper clearing and increase acceptance infrastructure to promote digital payments.