To address digital payment frauds in the country, a separate platform will be created by the Reserve Bank of India. Speaking about the growing number of digital frauds in the country, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank has implemented various measures over the years to enhance digital payments' depth, safety, and security, significantly boosting consumer confidence.
He said, “Growing instances of digital payment frauds, however, highlights the need for a system-wide approach to prevent and mitigate such frauds. It is, therefore, proposed to establish a Digital Payments Intelligence Platform for network-level intelligence and real-time data sharing across the digital payments’ ecosystem.”
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With the aim of taking this initiative further, a committee has been constituted by the Reserve Bank of India in order to examine aspects of setting up the platform. As per the Economic Times, the committee will be chaired by Abhaya Hota, former National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) MD and CEO. Additionally, representatives from NPCI, the State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank will be a part of the committee. As per the report, Vipin Surelia, head of risk at Visa; Arif Khan, chief innovation officer at Razorpay; and Jitendra Gupta, founder of Jupiter, are some of the members who will be a part of the committee.
In the financial year 2023–24, there were 36,075 bank frauds, up 166 percent from the previous year, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) annual report, which was made public on May 30. The figures exceeded the 13,564 reported in FY23 by a significant margin. Further, the report added that most frauds have happened in the digital payments category (cards and internet).
A report from the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) claims financial fraud is rising globally due to people adopting new, sophisticated technology that provides opportunities for online criminals. Speaking about the rise in financial crimes, Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL Secretary General, said, “Changes in technology and the rapid increase in the scale and volume of organized crime have driven the creation of a range of new ways to defraud innocent people, businesses, and even governments. With the development of AI and cryptocurrency, the situation is only going to get worse without urgent action.”
