SBI Union, Others Urge Reserve Bank To Scrap Digital Payments Plan-Letter

The SBI union representing the country’s largest state-run bank and a global alliance have asked the central bank to bar large companies from setting up payment networks, saying in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday that privatisation could compromise data safety.

In a bid to reduce concentration risks in the payments sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last year invited companies to forge so-called New Umbrella Entities (NUEs) to create a payments network that would rival the country’s flagship processor, the National Payments Council of India (NPCI).

The NUE will be allowed to operate new payment systems including digital and ATM transactions.

Amazon, Google, Facebook and others have applied for such licences in partnership with Indian companies such as Reliance and ICICI Bank.

Involvement of big multi-national companies raises fears of abuse of user data and India’s digital payment networks should continue to operate on a non-profit basis, the All India State Bank of India (SBI) Staff Federation and the UNI Global Union, a vocal critic of tech giants, wrote in the letter.