India's payment systems among best in the world, but need to harness technology to make payment systems foolproof: RBI

RBI Deputy Governor BP Kanungo has made a strong case for harnessing technology to make payments system 100% accurate and ensure customers are not put off due to transaction failures.

Speaking at NPCI National Payments Excellence Awards function in Mumbai on Tuesday, the Deputy Governor, however, maintained that India's payment systems are among the best in the world.

Observing that the RBI gets many complaints related to failure of transactions, Kanungo said that in India, when new users are being initiated into digital financial transactions, if their early experience is less than wholesome, "they are put off, and fall back on non-digital means".

So, it is imperative that the technology is harnessed to prevent failures.

"Payment systems must ensure 100 per cent accuracy," he said.

He further said that while an elaborate machinery is in place for redressing banking-related customer complaints, the same cannot be said about redressal of complaints in the digital space and needs to be put in place.

"Member institutions and payment service providers must strengthen their grievance redressal mechanism to handle complaints, which should be transparent, easy and effective," he said.

NPCI over the years has operated various retail payment systems like IMPS, UPI-including BHIM, National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) for mobile payments, RuPay, and Aadhaar-based AePS.

In all the payment systems, the main role of NPCI has been to offer switching services and the attendant clearing and settlement facilities.