According to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Indian banks will fight increased instances of fraud in digital payments with this new 'exclusive Internet Domain by the central bank, bank.in.
This measures would reduce cybersecurity threats and malign activities such as phishing; this would also aid in streamlining secure financial services, thereby uplifting trust in banking and payment service through digital networks.
"The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) will be the exclusive registrar. The registration process will be open from April 2025. Guidelines for banks will be separately issued. An exclusive domain 'fin.in' for other non-bank entities in the financial sector is planned to be generally opened ahead," RBI Governor said.
The RBI will also make cross-border Card Not Present transactions necessary to have enabling Additional Factor of authentication as does domestic digital payment.
The presence of an additional factor of Authentication for digital payment has increased transaction safety which again gave confidence in the minds of customers to pay digitally. Although this is again a requirement restricted to domestic-only transactions.
To provide similar safety for online international transactions with cards issued in India, it is proposed to enable AFA for international card not present online transactions as well.
This would add an extra layer of security when the overseas merchant is enabled for AFA. The draft circular will be issued shortly for feedback from stakeholders, according to an RBI statement.
The RBI AFA guidelines state that most electronic transactions must include a secondary authentication step. It tries to improve the security of digital payments.
The risk-based approach would help issuers choose the most appropriate AFA for a particular transaction. It will take into consideration the value of the transaction, the channel in which the transaction was originated, and the customer and beneficiary risk profiles.
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