RBI announces completion of test phase of ‘Retail Payment’ products by 6 entities
14 Sep 2021
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the completion of the test phase of `Retail Payment’ products by the First Cohort of six entities under the regulatory sandbox. The tests commenced towards the end of last year.
The six entities that have completed the ‘Test Phase’ and their products are:
Nucleus Software Exports Ltd - (PaySe): PaySe is an offline digital cash product which proposes to help in digitisation of payments in rural areas, starting with Self Help Groups (SHG), through an offline payment solution and a digitised SHG-centered ecosystem. It uses NFC or Bluetooth Low energy protocol for secure wireless offline payment mode where no other connectivity is required at the time of the customer transaction at merchant location.
Tap Smart Data Information Services Private Limited - (Citycash): `Citycash’ is a set of NFC-based prepaid card and NFC enabled Point of Sale (PoS) device to facilitate offline Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions. The card can be used as travel pass and wallet to pay in offline mode for purchase of bus tickets as well as payment at select merchants.
Natural Support Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd - (IND-e-Cash): The product ‘IND-e-Cash’ (earlier named ‘eRupaya’), is a set of Near-Field Communication (NFC) based Prepaid card and NFC enabled Point of Sale (PoS) device, to facilitate offline P2M transactions and offline digital payments in remote locations.
Naffa Innovations Pvt Ltd - (ToneTag): The product is an offline, feature phone-based payment solution for P2M transactions over ‘sound medium’ by establishing a secure channel for data transfer over Interactive Voice Response (IVR) between devices. The product enables contactless payment even without internet.
Ubona Technologies Pvt Ltd - (BHIM Voice): The voice-based UPI payment solution facilitates offline Person-to Person (P2P) and P2M transactions using mobile phones, including feature phones. The product also offers convenience of preferred Indian language to the customer through IVR, making adoption of digital transactions user friendly.
Eroute Technologies Pvt Ltd - The product is UPI-based offline payment solution using SIM overlay smartcard placed on the SIM to drive SIM Tool Kit (STK) menu-based user interface to facilitate P2P/P2M transactions. This product offers payment solution to non-internet connected feature phone users.
RBI said the products were evaluated based on mutually agreed test scenarios and expected outcomes. All the products have been found viable within the boundary conditions defined during testing under Regulatory Sandbox.
These entities have now exited the First Cohort of the Regulatory Sandbox on ‘Retail Payments’ and their products have been found acceptable under this cohort and may be considered for adoption by Regulated Entities subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, the RBI stated.
RBI announced opening of the Second Cohort under Regulatory Sandbox on 16 December 2020 for cross-border payments, for which it received 27 applications from 26 entities of which eight entities have been selected for the ‘Test Phase’. The entities will commence testing of their products from the third week of September 2021. These include:
Book My Forex Private Limited: The product facilitates fully online outward cross-border remittances to bank accounts and debit/ prepaid cards overseas using VISA Direct and Master Card Send via digitisation of the process, including digital KYC/ AML verification.
Cashfree Payments India Private Limited: The product extends a cross-border payment platform to facilitates the purchase of assets listed on foreign exchanges (eg, Nasdaq) like publicly listed shares, exchange-traded funds, ie, ETFs and units of mutual funds, securities by Indian investors via local payment methods.
Fairex Solutions Private Limited:The product provides an aggregation platform of leading cross-border payment providers for outward remittance.
Flyremit Private Limited: The product is an online outward cross-border remittance platform for individuals as well as for businesses and facilitates digitisation of the remittance process, including digital KYC verification.
Nearby Technologies Private Limited: The product ‘Paynearby’ facilitates routing the inward cross-border remittance to the beneficiary’s Aadhaar number as a virtual bank account using existing RDA mechanism.
Open Financial Technologies Private Limited: The product proposes a Blockchain-based cross-border payment system, leveraging the current infrastructure and ensures frictionless and tamper-proof monitoring capabilities.
SoCash India Private Limited: The product is primarily aimed at inbound and outbound tourists to/from India to facilitate cross-border retail merchant payments and cash withdrawal at select merchant outlets in India and Singapore.
Wall Street Finance Limited: The product ‘WSFx SecuSmart REMIT’ facilitates contactless outward cross-border remittances with digital customer onboarding and remittance processing through a complete digital process.
RBI also announced the theme for the Third Cohort under the Regulatory Sandbox as ‘MSME Lending’ on 16 December 2020. It has now announced the opening of application window for the Third Cohort to eligible entities.
The application for the Third Cohort may be submitted from 1 October 2021 to 14 November 2021. A scanned copy of the application, together with enclosures (maximum size 10 MB), may be forwarded through email, RBI said.