RBI forms Nilekani-led panel to galvanise digital payments

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday constituted a high-level committee under Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani to suggest measures to strengthen the safety and security of digital payments in the country. The five-member panel on deepening of digital payments has been constituted with a view to encourage digitisation of payments and enhance financial inclusion through digitisation, the RBI said in a statement.

"The committee shall submit its report within a period of 90 days from the date of its first meeting," it added. The panel has been tasked with reviewing the existing status of digitisation of payments in the country, identifying the current gaps in the ecosystem and suggesting ways to bridge them and assessing the current levels of digital payments in financial inclusion.

It will also "suggest measures to strengthen the safety and security of digital payments... (and) a road map for increasing customer confidence and trust while accessing financial services through digital modes".

It has also been asked to undertake cross country analyses with a view to identify best practices that can be adopted in our country to accelerate digitisation of the economy and financial inclusion through greater use of digital payments.

Another term of reference of the panel, the RBI said is to suggest a medium-term strategy for deepening of digital payments. Besides Infosys co-founder Nilekani, other members of the panel are former RBI deputy governor H R Khan, former MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank Kishore Sansi and former secretary in ministries of IT and steel Aruna Sharma.

The fifth member is Sanjay Jain, chief innovation officer, Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM Ahmedabad.

Meanwhile, the high-level panel led by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan on Tuesday held its first meeting to decide on an appropriate size of reserves that the central bank should maintain and the dividend it should give to the Government. The six-member panel is likely to submit its report in April, sources said.

The panel has been entrusted with the task of reviewing the best practices followed by central banks worldwide in making assessment and provisions for risks which a central bank balance sheet are subject to.

The panel, having former economic affairs secretary Rakesh Mohan as its vice-chairman, will propose a suitable profit distribution policy taking into account all the likely situations of RBI, including the situation of holding more provisions than required. The government and RBI under previous governor Urjit Patel had been at loggerheads over the Rs 9.6 lakh crore surplus capital with the central bank.

The finance ministry was of the view that the buffer of 28 per cent of gross assets maintained by RBI is well above the global norm of around 14 per cent. Following this, the RBI board in its meeting on November 19, 2018 decided to constitute a panel to examine Economic Capital Framework.

The committee also includes Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg and two members of RBI central board — Bharat Doshi and Sudhir Mankad. RBI Deputy Governor NS Vishwanathan is the sixth member of the committee.

In the past, the issue of the ideal size of RBI's reserves has been examined by three committees — V Subrahmanyam (1997), Usha Thorat (2004) and Y H Malegam (2013).