Disruption in recurring payment anticipated as banks hurry to meet new norms

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As new RBI rules on recurring payments kick in about a week’s time, banks, payment aggregators and merchants are hurrying up efforts to ensure that there is no major payment disruption. Private sector lenders ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank have communicated to customers they will comply with the RBI guidelines on recurring payments. The largest bank, State Bank of India, however, has been silent on the issue.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new rules says banks should send a pre-debit notification to customers at least 24 hours before initiating auto-debit transactions.

The report said that the payment ecosystem, online merchants and consumers are anticipating disruption in recurring payments through debit and credit cards.

The Business Standard reported recurring payment plans have been suspended on a “temporary” basis in some cases. It further said that merchants are sounded off their customers, indirectly blaming banks for the inconvenience.

Google, Facebook, YouTube have cautioned their subscribers that the new guidelines may result in disruptions in e-mandate based recurring payments. Financial services providers, OTT platforms, telecom operators and news media are likely to be impacted, according to media reports.

Quoting sources, the Business Standard reported that the RBI had suggested the ‘card on file tokenisation’ (CoFT) method to comply with its norms. In the CoFT method, the card issuer network or bank can keep the customer details, but not the payment gateways and the merchants. “You may need to verify your card on file in order to keep your membership with us. This is due to an RBI mandate regarding recurring payments, which will go into effect on September 30, 2021. You will only need to do this once,” the report quoted Google.

According to media reports, customers are also being advised to make direct payment for standing instructions as the old facility gets scrapped in the interim.

HDFC Bank in its correspondence to customers, said, “The new conditions prescribed by the RBI require a cohesive effort by all stakeholders, including card-issuing banks, merchant acquiring banks, card networks, and merchants. All constituents must complete the development, integration, and deployment of a ‘common’ platform fully compliant with the RBI guidelines”.

Sanjeev Moghe, EVP & head, cards & payments, Axis Bank, is quoted as saying in media reports that the bank will go live in the next two to three days, complying with the RBI guidelines.

ICICI Bank will implement the RBI guidelines on auto-debit payments from debit/credit cards with effect from Oct 1, a spokesperson for the bank said.