Reserve bank of India (RBI) has taken a significant step to safeguard the integrity of the digital economy and announced the establishment of a Digital Payments Intelligence Platform (DPIP) to combat the rising tide of online frauds. These announcements were made by RBI’s Governor Shaktikanta Das.

A committee led by Shri A.P. Hota has been formed to provide recommendations on the operational parameters and processes of the DPIP. The committee’s mandate includes defining the extent of data to be provided by reporting entities and establishing guidelines for data sharing and analysis. 

Digital Payments Intelligence
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According to RBI’S annual report released on May 30, there has been a significant surge in the number of financial frauds reported by banks— increasing by 166% year-on-year in the financial year 2023-24, at 36,075 cases. This is around 22,511 cases more than the previous year’s reports, which put the figure at 13,564 cases. It highlights a very clear concern, something has to be one about the state of digital financial security.

Most digital payment frauds occur when scammers trick naive users into making payments under the guise of ‘returning’ accidentally sent money or ‘checking’ the validity of their bank account. In these type of frauds, where a person willingly sends their info to fraudsters, nothing can be done by other foreseeing authorities like banks, card networks, payment aggregators or payment apps who are constantly trying to make sure their transactions are safe and fool proof. 

Enhancing Security in Digital Transactions: The Impact of Digital Payments Intelligence

Hence, this new platform will reportedly oversee these payments and provide data to tackle the issue of payment frauds.

“One of the biggest issues faced by the industry is that of repeat offenders - where the same fraudster systematically targets multiple victims. Efforts to create an industry-wide database have so far been mired by legal and commercial issues related to sharing of personal information of fraudsters. We hope that with RBI stepping in, it will become possible to create such a database through which repeat offenders can be stopped,” Wriju Ray, Chief Business Officer at IDfy, said. 

Over the years, the RBI has introduced several measures to deepen the digital payment penetration while ensuring safety. The DPIP is the latest such initiative and marks a significant milestone in the journey towards ensuring a fraud-free payments landscape, where those that commit such crimes can actually be caught in live time. This will restore faith in the security of online transactions for many customers around the world and play a crucial role in safeguarding the interests of all participants in the digital payments ecosystem. 

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