The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines paving the way for subscribers of mobile-banking services to send and receive up to Rs 5,000 a day through their phones.
The guidelines also allow customers to carry out transactions of up to Rs 10,000 on purchases of goods or services through their mobiles.
The RBI said the banks would be able to offer mobile banking services only to the account holders and those who hold debit or credit cards. Cross-border transfers would not be permitted.
“One of the big barriers to adoption of mobile services to date has been the perception that the mobile channel is somehow less secure than other electronic channels,” said Abhijit Bose, vice-president of Ngpay, a mobile commerce service provider.
“The guidelines will make users more confident.” On September 20, the RBI had proposed that mobile banking customers be allowed to carry out transactions of up to Rs 2,500 per day through their handsets.
The RBI said the long-term goal of the mobile banking framework in India would be to enable transfer of funds from an account in one bank to any other account in the same or any other bank on a real-time basis, irrespective of the mobile network a customer has subscribed to.
“To meet the objective of a nation-wide mobile banking framework, facilitating inter-bank settlement, a robust clearing and settlement infrastructure operating on a 24×7 basis would be necessary,” the RBI said.
© HT Media
