Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, Others To Be Interoperable From April 2022 - All You Need To Know

It is worth noting that mobile wallets can also be used for cash withdrawals up to Rs 2,000, and the wallet limit has also been expanded to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1 lakh. 

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Mobile Wallets Interoperability: All prepaid payment instruments such as Paytm, MobiKwik and PhonePe have to offer their know-your-customer or KYC compliant users interoperability mandatorily by March 31, 2022 as per the directions from Reserve Bank of India.

The apex bank has issued this notification to offer clarity about the regulations introduced during the April 7 Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

“It shall be mandatory for PPI issuers to give the holders of full-KYC PPIs (KYC compliant PPIs) interoperability through authorised card networks (for PPIs in the form of cards) and UPI (for PPIs in the form of electronic wallets),” said RBI in a notification.

What does it mean?

For users it means those who have a full KYC compliant payment wallet can send and receive money to and from different mobile wallets. It is worth noting that mobile wallets can also be used for cash withdrawals up to Rs 2,000, and the wallet limit has also been expanded to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1 lakh. 

Users of full KYC-compliant PPIs issued by non-bank PPI issuers can withdraw a maximum of Rs 2,000 per transaction and Rs 10,000 per month per PPI, the circular said.

“Any PPI issuer offering this facility [interoperability] shall put in place proper customer redressal mechanisms. Complaints in this regard shall fall under the ambit of the respective ombudsman schemes and instructions on limiting liability of customers,” the RBI noted in its circular.

The interoperability within PPIs was first intitiated by the RBI in 2017 after the guidelines were laid down to enable the process in 2018, although at the time it was not made mandatory.

However, in April 2021, the RBI noted that even after two years, migration towards full-KYC PPIs, and interoperability has not been significant. Hence, it has decided to make interoperability mandatory for full-KYC PPIs and for all acceptance infrastructure.

According to the latest circular, prepaid payment instruments for mass transit systems are exempt from interoperability and gift prepaid payment instruments have the option to offer interoperability.