PREPAID PAYMENT INSTRUMENTS (PPIs)

Oct. 17, 2018

The Reserve Bank of India has issued final guidelines to allow interoperability for Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs), such as mobile wallets.

About:

  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released rules on interoperability of Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs)

  • Interoperability allows compatibility between payment systems and once implemented, a user will be able to transfer funds between mobile wallets and also from their wallets to bank accounts.

  • These rules do not force PPIs such as wallets to permit such transfers; instead, these guidelines are for “participating PPI issuers, who choose to adopt interoperability”.

  • In cases where PPIs are issued in the form of wallets, interoperability across PPIs shall be enabled through unified payments interface (UPI). Where PPIs are issued in the form of cards, the cards shall be affiliated to the authorized card networks.