“Interoperability will open up huge business scope for the payments industry,” said Vinay Kalantri, founder of The Mobile Wallet. “(With interoperability,) we can act almost like a bank account where transactions can happen across wallets as well as other bank accounts. If full KYC of our customer base gets us interoperability, it is completely justified.”
Another senior payment company executive said just as banks that issue credit and debit cards are identified as ‘issuing banks’ and those onboarding merchants are known as ‘acquiring banks’, the same theory should apply to digital wallet companies.
“If wallets are also given payment service provider (PSP) status, then through the handle that the customer creates they can transfer funds to other wallets as well as to bank accounts, which can in turn push merchant payments,” he said. “We have also told RBI that we will meet all the security standards set for (unified payments interface, or UPI) participants across vulnerability testing, penetration testing, etc.”
The industry has also asked for a settlement account that mobile wallets could have with banks so both credit and debit transactions can be settled directly by the National Payments Corporation of India. This could be a step forward for the industry.
“A lot of these features being asked for could make mobile wallets almost at par with payment banks,” said a senior private sector banker. “How much RBI would accommodate the demand is something to be waited for, but interoperability, as promised, will only be effective once the entire spectrum of payments opens up.”