Page 59 - Banking Finance July 2025
P. 59
RBI CIRCULAR
RBI
CIRCULAR
Aadhaar Enabled Payment System Due Dili- transferred to DEA Fund, including submission of vari-
gence of AePS Touchpoint Operators ous returns.
2. Instructions have been issued to banks from time to
June 27, 2025
time in the form of operational guidelines since 2014.
1. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) is a payment A review has recently been carried out to consolidate
system operated by National Payment Corporation of and rationalise the extant instructions. The revised in-
India (NPCI) that facilitates interoperable transactions structions are provided at Annex.
using Aadhaar enabled authentication. AePS plays a
prominent role in enabling financial inclusion. 3. These instructions are issued in exercise of powers
conferred under Sections 26A and 35A of the Banking
2. In recent times, there have been reports of frauds per- Regulation Act, 1949, and are applicable to all the
petuated through AePS due to identity theft or compro-
banks covered under the DEA Fund Scheme, viz.,
mise of customer credentials. To protect bank custom- Commercial Banks (including RRBs, LABs, SFBs and
ers from such frauds, and to maintain trust and confi- PBs) and all Co-operative Banks.
dence in the safety and security of the system, a need
is felt to enhance the robustness of AePS. Accordingly, 4. The instructions shall come into effect from October
as announced in Statement on Developmental and 01, 2025.
Regulatory Policies dated February 08, 2024, it has been
decided to issue directions for streamlining the process Review of Priority Sector Lending norms - Small
for onboarding of AePS touchpoint operators and Finance Banks
strengthening fraud risk management. Detailed instruc-
tions are placed in the Annex. June 20, 2025
3. These directions are issued under Section 18 read with 1. Please refer to the Guidelines for Licensing of Small
Section 10(2) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Finance Banks in Private Sector dated November 27,
(PSS) Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007) and shall come into 2014 and the Guidelines for on-tap Licensing of Small
effect from January 01, 2026. Finance Banks in Private Sector released by Reserve
Bank on December 5, 2019. In terms of paragraph II
The Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) (9) of the aforesaid Licensing Guidelines, a small fi-
Fund Scheme, 2014 Revised Operational nance bank (SFB) is required to extend 75 per cent of
Guidelines its Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) to the sectors eli-
gible for classification as priority sector lending (PSL)
June 25, 2025
by the Reserve Bank. Further, while 40 per cent of its
1. The Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund ANBC should be allocated to different sub-sectors un-
Scheme, 2014, prescribes the process to be followed der PSL as per the extant PSL prescriptions, the bank
by the banks for transfer to and claim of the amounts can allocate the balance 35 per cent to any one or
BANKING FINANCE | JULY | 2025 | 53
