NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has paved the way for offline payments using any instrument like cards, wallets, mobile devices, etc. The banking regulator on Monday released the framework for offline payment transactions.
The framework sets an upper limit of Rs 200 per offline transaction. The total limit for offline transactions on a payment instrument has been set at Rs 2,000 at any point in time.
As per the new rules, offline payments can be made face-to-face only, and transactions can be done without Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA). However, replenishment of used limit can be allowed only in online mode with additional factor authentication.
An offline payment is one where a transaction can be made without an internet or telecom connectivity. Offline payment can be enabled only after obtaining specific consent of the customer.
Since the transactions are offline, alerts (by way of SMS and/or e-mail) will be received by the customer after a time lag.
The offline payment framework, which comes into effect immediately, requires the issuer - banks or NBFCs -- to send transaction alerts to users as soon as transaction details are received.
But it is not necessary to send alert for each transaction; however, details of each transaction should be adequately conveyed.
The authorized payment system operators will have to incur all liabilities arising out of technical or transaction security issues at merchant’s end.