RBI releases framework for geo-tagging of payment system touchpoints

Ashish M. Shaji

13 Sep, 2022

The Reserve Bank of India recently issued the framework for geo-tagging of payment system touchpoints. The RBI had shown its interest to launch a framework for geo-tagging of physical payment acceptance infrastructure in its Monetary Policy Statement that was released on 8^th October 2021. Subsequently, RBI released a framework to capture geo-tagging information of payment system touch points set up by banks / non-bank PSOs.

What do you mean by Geo-tagging?

Geotagging involves the case where geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) of payment touch points deployed by merchants is captured to obtain payments from customers. Geotagging is beneficial in the following ways-

• provides insights on regional penetration of digital payments;
• monitor infrastructure density across different locations;
• identify scope for implementing additional payment touch points;
• facilitate focused digital literacy programmes.

Policy interventions for realising the benefits mentioned above shall be facilitated by the information thus collected.

Physical infrastructure used by Customers

The digital payment transactions performed by customers through payment touch points use two major categories of physical infrastructure:

• Banking Infrastructure including bank branches, offices, extension counters, ATMs/Cash Deposit Machines, cash recycler machine, micro ATMs used by business correspondents etc.
• Payment acceptance infrastructure including points of sale terminals, Quick Response codes deployed by banks/non-bank PSOs etc.

Guidelines to be followed while using geo-tagging

The RBI said that the use of geo tagging shall be subject to the following guidelines:

• Banks /Non-bank PSOs are required to capture and keep geographical coordinates for all payment touchpoints;
• Geo tagging info. in respect of the following must be submitted to the RBI- Mobile PoS, Soft PoS, tablet PoS, self service kiosk PoS, desktop PoS, android based PoS terminals, non-android based PoS terminals with GPRS SIM embedded, Non-android based PoS terminals with PSTN Line connectivity and paper based/soft QR Codes such as Bharat QR, UPI QR etc.

Reporting Guidelines

Reporting requirements to be followed by banks/non-bank PSOs and procedure thereof has been detailed below:

Information to be submitted to the RBI

• Banks/Non-bank PSOs are required to maintain and keep a registry with accurate location of payment touch points across India with the following information:

1. Merchant related information- Merchant details such as name, ID, merchant Type, category, contact information, merchant/payment aggregator details, if any etc. Merchant Location details such as address, state, district, revenue centre, revenue centre population, post office, pin code, tier etc.
2. Payment acceptance infrastructure information- General payment touch point details such as terminal type, sub-type, terminal ID, operating status etc. Payment Touch Point Location Details such as terminal address, state, district, revenue centre, revenue centre population, post office, pin code, geo- coordinates, population group etc.

Reporting requirements to be followed by Banks/Non-bank PSOs

Banks/Non-bank PSOs need to adhere to the following guidelines:

• They are required to report information on payment touch points to the RBI through CIMS (Centralised Information Management System) of RBI;
• Reporting of the information is required to be in the .txt/CSV file format;
• They shall also report two files- File 1 which shall contain details of the merchants acquired / on-boarded by the banks / non-bank PSOs; and File 2 which shall contain details regarding the payment touch points deployed by the acquired / on-boarded merchants.
• Banks/non-bank PSOs that deploy payment touch points are required to report to the RBI the details of existing payment touch points that have been deployed, details of additional touch points as and when deployed, updates and changes related to the existing payment touch points which should be reported within a period of 7 days from the date of updation/modification.

Miscellaneous Guidelines

Some additional guidelines issued addressing Banks/Non-bank PSOs are as follows:

• Banks/non-banks PSOs will be responsible for keeping data relating to payment touch points deployed and the merchants acquired/onboarded by them is accurate and updated;
• Banks/Non-bank PSOs will be required to set up essential measures at their end to ensure timely capture and reporting of required information to the RBI according to the indicated timelines;
• Banks/Non-bank PSOs will be required to provide the contact information of the nodal officer for this activity by 31 March 2022 to- osddpssco@rbi.org.in RBI shall provide the login details to the nodal officers of banks/Non-bank PSOs to submit their information in CIMS. RBI said that it will communicate the timeline for beginning of reporting in CIMS very soon. 

Takeaway

The RBI while releasing the framework for geo tagging of payment touch points pointed out how the payment ecosystem has witnessed rapid growth in India with a range of payment systems, platforms, products and services available for consumers. RBI also stated that it is focused to deepen digital payments and providing an inclusive access to everyone in the country regardless of their physical location or digital literacy. Hence it understood the need for having a robust payment acceptance infrastructure with various types of touch points across the country which can be easily accessed. RBI^[1] discovered the need to capture the accurate location of existing payment system touch points/acceptance infrastructure to upscale and chalk out intervention strategies. Hence in view of this RBI released framework for geo-tagging of physical payment acceptance infrastructure.

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