Mumbai, April 9 To mitigate financial fraud, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday proposed a delay in credit for authorized push payments and a control or kill switch for digital payments.
It also proposed limiting the total amount of credits in an account to help counter the problem created by mule accounts, and designating a trusted person to authenticate high-value transactions for citizens aged 70 years and above and persons with disabilities.
The central bank proposed these norms in a discussion paper released on Thursday amid a rise in fraudulent activities targeting customers. It announced the discussion paper as part of its statement on developmental and regulatory policies during the February monetary policy meeting.
The central bank has requested feedback and comments on the discussion paper by May 8.
The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) indicates that fraud related to digital payments is on the rise, with 28 lakh frauds reported in 2025, amounting to Rs 22,931 crore, higher than 24 lakh, totaling Rs 22,848 crore in 2024, and 13.1 lakh worth Rs 7,465 crore in 2023, according to the discussion paper.
In the lagged credit for authorized push payments, the central bank proposed a short delay at the payer's end for transactions above Rs 10,000.
Under this approach, once a customer initiates a transaction exceeding Rs 10,000, a one-hour delay could be applied. This delay could be applied at the payer's end, or at the payee's end, or both. During this period, the payer's bank would provisionally debit the customer's account, and the payer would retain the option to cancel the transaction for any reason.
High-value transactions were proposed to fall under this ambit because transactions above Rs 10,000 account for approximately 45 per cent of reported fraud cases by volume, but about 98.5 per cent by value.
The central bank also proposed additional authentication by a trusted person for high-value digital transactions by vulnerable sections, such as citizens aged 70 years and above and persons with disabilities, and accounts to receive credits commensurate with the nature of the relationship with banks.
Further, it said that customers can be provided with digital payment controls, which would consist of a 'switch on/off' facility for any digital payment mode, as well as for setting limits for different transaction types at the account level, and with a single facility to disable all digital payment transactions from the account ('kill switch') at one stroke.
Activation of the 'kill switch' at the account level would override other controls/configurations set up by the account holder. Once the 'kill switch' is enabled, disabling it to re-activate digital payments can be permitted either through digital modes after taking proper authentication/verification measures, or through a physical visit to a bank branch by the account holder, as proposed by the RBI in the discussion paper.