RBI Proposes 1-hour Delay For High Value Digital Transactions To Curb Fraud

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday released a discussion paper proposing a series of measures to tackle the sharp rise in digital payment frauds, including a mandatory time lag on certain bank transfers, additional authentication by trusted person (for high value transactions) done by senior citizens, allowing only accounts with sufficient review to receive large credits caps on suspicious accounts, and a one-click "kill switch" for customers to instantly freeze all digital payments.

Comments on the paper are open until May 8, 2026.

In its discussion paper "Exploring safeguards in digital payments to curb frauds", the central bank quoting figures from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) said that frauds related to digital payments have risen from 2.6 lakh reported cases worth ₹551 crore in 2021 to 28 lakh cases worth ₹22,931 crore in 2025.

"Fraudsters are deploying various tactics, such as bogus call centres, deepfake-driven impersonation scams and mule account networks. Almost all sections of society, especially the vulnerable groups such as senior citizens have fallen prey to such Authorised Push Payment Frauds (APP frauds). Therefore, there is an urgent need to put in place systems and processes to address these issues," said the central bank.

The Reserve Bank of India outlined four possible safeguards. Under option 1, banks would be required to hold account-to-account transfers above ₹10,000 for one hour at the payer's end before executing them. During this window, customers would retain the option to cancel. If a transaction appears suspicious, the bank would be required to seek reconfirmation from the payer before proceeding. Merchant payments, e-mandates, NACH transactions and cheques would be exempt. Customers could also whitelist specific payees to bypass the delay.

The RBI noted that transactions above ₹10,000 make up around 45 per cent of reported fraud cases by volume but account for approximately 98.5 per cent of total fraud value, justifying the threshold as a targeted safeguard.

Three other options were also proposed. The second option proposed would require citizens aged 70 and above and persons with disabilities to nominate a "trusted person" whose authentication would be mandatory for transfers above ₹50,000, (a threshold that covers nearly 92 per cent of fraud value).

The third option would cap annual aggregate credits into individual and small business accounts at ₹25 lakh. Amounts beyond this threshold would be held as "shadow credit" accessible only after the account holder satisfies the bank about the transaction's legitimacy. If no justification is provided within 30 days, the funds would be returned to the sender.

Under the fourth option proposed customers could be provided with controls which would consist of a ‘switch on/off’ facility for any digital payment mode as well as for setting limits for different transaction types at the account level. Another possible approach suggested was that customers may be provided with a single facility to disable all digital payment transactions from the account (‘kill switch’) at one stroke.