CIO & LEADER-November 2017 (1)

Every three years since 2001, the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has been releasing what it
calls a payment systems vision – a document
that articulates the policy and regulatory
stance it would take with regards to payment
systems for next three years.
In its fourth such document, called Payment System Vision
2012-15, released as a draft in June 2012 and finalized in
October the same year, the central bank moved from just talking
about attributes such as safety, security, interoperability
and efficiency to explicitly give itself a mandate to push electronic
payments.
The vision statement of that document read something like
this: To proactively encourage electronic payment systems
for ushering in a less-cash society in India and to ensure payment
and settlement systems in the country are safe, efficient,
interoperable, authorized, accessible, inclusive and compliant
with international standards.
For the first time, two phrases entered the vision lexicon:
Electronic payment and less-cash society.
To put it in context, the vision document came only five
months after the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee,
releasing a white paper on black money that explicitly
stressed on the need to move to electronic payments to curb
the circulation of black money. The white paper is not available
in the Department of Revenue site anymore.
RBI’s insertion of the phrase ‘less-cash society’ was seen
by many as a dream than a vision at that time, though many
hailed the idea behind it.
But in the next few months, RBI demonstrated that it was
serious. For one, it slashed debit card transaction fees; it
mandated the banks to go for electronic payments even while
allowing some concessions to mobile wallets.
The switch to a digital payment regime had started in all
earnest. The next few years saw digital payment forms registering
triple digit growths. (see charts)
November 2017 | CIO&LEADER 7