Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said payment systems have emerged as the lifeline of our financial system.

The RBI Governor, speaking at the FIBAC 2022 Conference on Wednesday, said the central bank’s focus is on promoting interoperability, cross-border linkages, and innovation.

“Our initiatives have ensured the availability of ‘anytime and anywhere’ payment systems for the common man at reasonable rates,” he said, adding that interoperability across instruments had resulted in optimum and efficient use of available infrastructure, reduced cost, and increased convenience.

FICCI and Indian Banks Association have jointly organised FIBAC 2022 Conference.

Talking about interoperability, he said, “One of the best examples of interoperability is the unified payments interface (UPI) system. To enable the extension of UPI to feature phone users, the innovative UPI123Pay was introduced.”

He said UPI had been recognised as the fastest-growing retail payment system in the world and many countries expressed interest in a UPI-like platform. “Interlinking UPI with similar fast payment systems in other jurisdictions would help establish cross-border inter-linkages and facilitate cross-border payments,” he added.

The RBI Governor said, “Together with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the RBI’s initiatives in Bhutan, Nepal, Singapore, the UAE, and several other countries demonstrate the huge potential of the UPI in the years to come.”

He said, “24X7 availability throughout the year of the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) and fast-payment systems (UPI and Immediate Payments Service) has placed India in the forefront among countries” and added, “The Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) has been enabled to facilitate cross border inbound bill payments from overseas jurisdictions.”

The RBI, the Governor said, has established the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) for idea generation and development to promote innovation in the financial sector.

“The RBIH, in association with the RBI, is currently undertaking several important projects like improvements in the KYC process and digitisation of rural finance. A pilot project for end-to-end digitalisation of KCC (Kisan Credit Card) lending has been launched in select districts of Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh recently,” he said.

In conclusion, he said that he would like to touch upon the current liquidity situation and the exchange rate of the rupee, which are currently attracting considerable attention.