RBI issues framework for geo-tagging of payment system touch points

On March 25, 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a notification to provide the Framework for Geo-tagging of Payment System Touch Points to facilitate nuanced spread of acceptance infrastructure and inclusive access to digital payments.

Key points:

• Geo-tagging refers to capturing the geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) of payment touch points deployed by merchants to receive payments from their customers. Geo-tagging has various benefits, such as, provide insights on regional penetration of digital payments; monitor infrastructure density across different locations; identify scope for deploying additional payment touch points; facilitate focused digital literacy programmes. Policy interventions for realising the above benefits will be facilitated by the information thus collected.
• Digital payment transactions carried out by customers using payment touch points use two broad categories of physical infrastructure:

1. 1. Banking infrastructure comprising bank branches, offices, extension counters, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) / Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs), Cash Recycler Machines (CRMs), micro-ATMs used by Business Correspondents (BCs), etc.
   2. Payment acceptance infrastructure comprising Points of Sale (PoS) terminals, Quick Response (QR) codes deployed by banks / non-bank Payment System Operators (PSOs), etc.

• Use of geo-tagging to capture the locational data of acceptance infrastructure would be subject to the following guidelines:

1. 1. Banks / Non-bank PSOs shall capture and maintain geographical coordinates for all payment touch points.
   2. Geo-tagging information in respect of the following shall be submitted to the Reserve Bank:

• • PoS terminals (Mobile PoS, Soft PoS, Tablet PoS, Desktop PoS, Self-service Kiosk PoS, Android-based PoS terminals, Non-Android-based PoS terminals with GPRS SIM Card-embedded, Non-Android-based PoS terminals with PSTN Line Connectivity, etc.); and

  • Paper-based / Soft QR Codes (Bharat QR, UPI QR, etc.).

• Reporting Guidelines:

1. 1. Information to be submitted to Reserve Bank
   2. All banks / Non-bank PSOs shall report information on payment touch points to the Reserve Bank through the Centralised Information Management System (CIMS) of RBI.
   3. Banks / Non-bank PSOs shall be provided with a facility to access / download the data relating to information reported by them.
   4. Information shall be reported using the enclosed reporting template.