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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with a Master Direction for banks and card-issuing entities laying down common minimum standards to ensure security of digital payments. The Master Direction lays down guidelines for internet banking, mobile payments, card payments, customer protection and grievance redressal mechanism.

RBI said in view of the proliferation of cyber-attacks and their potential consequences, regulated entities should implement, except where explicitly permitted/ relaxed, multi-factor authentication for payments through electronic modes and fund transfers, including cash withdrawals from ATMs/ micro-ATMs/ business correspondents, through digital payment applications. The provisions of these directions would apply to the Regulated Entities (REs) - Scheduled Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks; and Credit card issuing NBFCs.

It further said such a move is expected to improve the security of digital payment channels and also convenience for users. These directions contain requirements for robust governance, implementation and monitoring of certain minimum standards on common security controls for channels like internet and mobile banking, card payments, etc. The robust protocol will help in checking frequent outages and disruption while provide secure environment of digital transaction