RBI finalises VPN linkage for banks and e-Biz portals
20 Apr 2015
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said it has finalised the financial aspects for using the Virtual Private Network (VPN) accounts obtained from National Informatics Centre (NIC) for accessing the e-Biz portal. This has been done in consultation with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and NIC, RBI said in a release.
Accordingly, the VPN account will be in the name of the individual users and will be coterminous with the lifetime of the digital signing (Class 2) certificates (which is for a maximum period of two years) issued by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Hyderabad;
Authorised banks will be required to credit (through NEFT / RTGS) the payment in advance for the VPN accounts (@ Rs9,654 per account for a block of two years) directly to National Informatics Centre Services Inc's (NICSI) bank account giving details of the account and its holder.
After making the payment, the bank may fill up the details in the 'Payment Reference Form' and forward the same to the email.
RBI has asked banks to maintain appropriate records pertaining to the number of connections, amounts remitted to NICSI, etc. Reconciliation issues, if any, may be resolved by writing to NICSI at its email address.
The VPN platform will help better integrate the country's banking system with the e-Biz portals in India's fast growing e-commerce market, which is valued at about $12 billion.
RBI is also thinking of relaxing the requirement for a two-step authentication process for small transactions to make online payments smoother.