MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked fintechs and payment providers to voluntarily disclose data on complaints that they have received and the time taken to resolve the complaints. The regulator has also asked the payment industry to provide feedback for the discussion paper on charges after segmenting the market based on whether it is peer-to-peer, merchant, the value of the transaction, size of merchant and speed.
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, RBI chief general manager P Vasudevan said that often companies ask complainants to privately provide details when they complain on soci-al media, but there is no indication on whether it has been resolved or not. He said that the first recourse for grievance redressal should always be the provider and not the RBI.
On payment charges, Vasudevan said that globally the thinking on what can be levied for every transaction is now changing. Policyma-kers are looking at whether there can be a base case and whether add-on services can be leveraged. “We have to look at segmenting this further. . into peer to peer, peer to merchant, large value versus small, large merchant versus small merchants, instant transfers versus deferred. All these elements need to be looked at while deciding charges,” said Vasudevan.
PhonePe founder & CEO Sameer Nigam said that while payments are a public good, they cannot be free for everyone, and someone will have to pay the bill. He said that the erstwhile Western model where the merchant fees would go up to 3% to 5% was perverse. “I also do not think we can go below costrecovery, and that is where we are right now. While making money through alternative ways, it may be true for banks and for National Payments Corporation of India, it was not true for fintechs,” he said.
Nigam did not agree with the premise that payment providers can make revenue using customer data.
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, RBI chief general manager P Vasudevan said that often companies ask complainants to privately provide details when they complain on soci-al media, but there is no indication on whether it has been resolved or not. He said that the first recourse for grievance redressal should always be the provider and not the RBI.
On payment charges, Vasudevan said that globally the thinking on what can be levied for every transaction is now changing. Policyma-kers are looking at whether there can be a base case and whether add-on services can be leveraged. “We have to look at segmenting this further. . into peer to peer, peer to merchant, large value versus small, large merchant versus small merchants, instant transfers versus deferred. All these elements need to be looked at while deciding charges,” said Vasudevan.
PhonePe founder & CEO Sameer Nigam said that while payments are a public good, they cannot be free for everyone, and someone will have to pay the bill. He said that the erstwhile Western model where the merchant fees would go up to 3% to 5% was perverse. “I also do not think we can go below costrecovery, and that is where we are right now. While making money through alternative ways, it may be true for banks and for National Payments Corporation of India, it was not true for fintechs,” he said.
Nigam did not agree with the premise that payment providers can make revenue using customer data.
