Eight firms selected for cross-border payments

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday announced that eight entities have been selected for the ‘test phase’ of the second cohort on cross border payments.

The eight entities include Book My Forex, Cashfree Payments, Fairex Solutions, Flyremit, Nearby Technologies, Open Financial Technologies, SoCash India and Wall Street Finance.

Speaking about Book My Forex product, the RBI said that its product facilitates fully online outward cross-border remittances to bank accounts and debit/ prepaid cards overseas using Visa Direct and Master Card Send via digitisation of the process including digital KYC/ AML verification.

In the case of Cashfree, its product extends a cross-border payment platform to facilitate the purchase of assets listed on foreign exchanges (e.g Nasdaq) like publicly listed shares, exchange-traded funds i.e. ETFs and units of mutual funds, securities by Indian investors via local payment methods.

“The Reserve Bank received 27 applications from 26 entities of which eight entities have been selected for the ‘Test Phase’. The entities… shall commence testing of their products from the third week of Sept. 2021,” the RBI said.

Meanwhile, six entities have completed the ‘test phase’ of the first cohort on retail payments. The six entities that have completed the test phase include Nucleus Software Exports (PaySe), Tap Smart Data Information Services (Citycash), Natural Support Consultancy Services (IND-e-Cash), Naffa Innovations (ToneTag), Ubona Technologies (BHIM Voice) and Eroute Technologies.

“The products were evaluated based on mutually agreed test scenarios and expected outcomes. All the products have been found viable within the boundary conditions defined during testing under Regulatory Sandbox,” the RBI said.

The products found acceptable under this cohort may be considered for adoption by regulated entities subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, it further said.

Regulatory sandbox refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may (or may not) permit certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing. The idea is to encourage innovations.