India might be looking at sweeping reforms in payments and settlements, according to a new vision document from the Centre.
The Reserve Bank of India unveiled its Payments Vision 2028 on March 27, a strategic roadmap with 15 concrete initiatives to be rolled out through December 2028. With the theme, "Shaping India's Payment Frontier", India’s apex bank seems to be doubling down on making the system safer, fairer, and globally formidable
The RBI outlined a "Shared Responsibility Framework", something to safeguard anyone who has ever had money vanish from their bank account via UPI after a dodgy call or a suspect SMS. Under the current rules, if you are a victim of unauthorised digital fraud, it is almost entirely your bank, the one that issued your account, that takes the hit.
RBI now proposes to change that, making both the sender’s bank and the receiver’s bank jointly liable. The rationale is that the alleged scammer’s bank will actually bother to check who is opening accounts on its platform.
"To ensure balanced accountability, introducing a shared responsibility framework would be explored under which both the customer’s bank (issuer) and the beneficiary’s bank jointly bear the liability arising from unauthorised digital payment transactions. This approach would incentivise both parties to implement robust fraud detection and prevention measures, and strengthen coordination for timely intervention, thereby enhancing overall consumer protection and trust in digital payments," the document read.
RBI also mused on the introduction of the Payments Switching Service (PaSS). If you have ever changed your bank account or moved your salary account, you might have had to go through days of notifying employers, insurance companies, and even moving over subscriptions and EMIs. Here, PaSS would let you transfer all your incoming and outgoing payment instructions, be it EMIs, salaries, auto-debits, everything, from your old account to a new one with minimal friction.
Another proposal is giving users the power to switch all digital payment modes on or off, not just cards, through their own bank’s app.
Apart from this, the document also outlined a complete overhaul of the cross-border payments framework to reduce friction, lower remittance costs, and make it simpler for MSMEs to trade internationally.
Other proposals include electronic cheques and the introduction of a new cyber risk framework for fintech firms. Read the full report HERE.
"A comprehensive review of the design and security features of cheques shall be undertaken to enhance uniformity, strengthen fraud prevention, and ensure alignment with emerging processes. The review shall identify and adopt best practices, making them applicable across all cheque instruments," read the report.
