RBI to ease net banking norms criteria for regional rural banks

Giving a push to digital banking in its monetary policy meeting announcement on Friday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it will rationalise internet banking guidelines for regional rural banks (RRBs) and will bring offline payment aggregators under its purview. 

Detailed guidelines regarding both the developments will be issued soon, said RBI. 

Highlighting that there is a need to promote digital banking in India’s rural areas, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the criteria of RRBs offering internet banking facilities to customers will be rationalised. RBI said the revised guidelines will be issued soon. 

RRBs are jointly owned by the central government, state government and sponsor banks. The ratio of holding for central government is 50 per cent, state government 15 percent and sponsor bank 35 per cent. 

RRBs provide various banking and financial services like MGNREGA wages disbursal, debit and credit cards, Unified Payment Service (UPI), among others. 

They were allowed to provide internet banking facility in 2015. “With a view to enhancing customer service and taking into account demand for such services, it has been decided to allow RRBs to extend the facility of internet banking to their customers,” said the RBI in a release in 2015.