The Reserve Bank of India, through a notification dated 15th January, 2020, has issued directions to Authorised Card Payment Networks / Non-Bank PPI issuers to improve user convenience and increase the security of card transactions.
The Directions are effective from 16th March, 2020.
The issuers must ensure the following:
- At the time of issuing or reissuing of cards, all physical and virtual cards issued must be enabled for use only at contact based points of usage like Automated Teller Machine (“ATM”), Point of Sale (“PoS”) and such other devices within India.
- The RBI is also making it mandatory for issuers to provide a facility for enabling card not present (domestic and international) transactions, card present (international) transactions and contactless transactions, as per the following process:
- i)A facility to switch on/off and set/modify transaction limits, within the overall card limit (if any limit is set by the issuer of the card) for all types of transactions like, domestic and international, at PoS, ATMs, online transactions, contactless transactions and others.
- ii)This facility must be provided at all times (24×7) through multiple channels like mobile applications, internet banking, ATMs, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and others;
iii) This facility may also be offered at branches or offices of the issuer of the card.
- iv)Alerts/information/status or other like intimation through SMS or e-mail, must be sent to the cardholder as and when there is any change in status of the card.
However, these directions are not mandatory for prepaid gift cards and those cards which are used at mass transit systems.
Source: Reserve Bank of India
