Tag: online transactions

From tomorrow, your standing instructions for bill payments to your bank won’t be honoured, till the bank develops an alternate system.

A huge number of credit and debit card users set auto payment instructions for utility services ranging from electricity and gas and subscription services for music, movies and other media. The new rules may lead to lead to chaos for millions of users.

Dashing messages

Banks are sending communications to customers saying that they will not process the recurring payments and customers will have to make payments directly to merchants.

“Attention! From 1st Oct’21, as per RBI guidelines on e-Mandate on cards, we will decline Non Compliant recurring txn at Merchant Web/App on your Credit/Debit Card. Alternate Solution – Retry regular payment on Merchant Web/App authenticated via OTP or Pay via AutoPay in BillPay on our NetBanking for your Electricity /Water/Gas/ Landline/Postpaid mobile/Broadband/Insurance billers,” said a message to customers by HDFC Bank.

Banks and payment aggregators are rushing to meet the October 1 deadline for implementing a new system for standing instructions for recurring online transactions as RBI may not extend it.

“In compliance with the regulatory requirements, we are currently building a solution to seamlessly manage all your domestic standing instructions for recurring payments. This solution will be available soon for you. Starting October 1, any existing standing instruction for domestic and international recurring transactions on your card account will not be processed. We request you to make these payments directly to the service providers to avoid any interruptions,” American Express said in a recent message to customers.

How does the new system work?

Under the proposed system, as a risk mitigating and customer facilitation measure, the card-issuing bank will have to send a pre-transaction notification to the cardholder, at least 24 hours before the actual charge or debit to the card. While registering e-mandate on the card, the cardholder shall be given the facility to choose a mode among available options (SMS, email, etc.) for receiving the pre-transaction notification from the issuer. On receipt of the pre-transaction notification, the cardholder shall have the facility to opt-out of the particular transaction or the e-mandate. For transactions above Rs 5,000, banks will also be required to send one time passwords to customers.

What is a standing instruction?

A standing instruction is a service offered to customers of a bank, wherein regular transactions that the customer wants to make are processed as a matter of course instead of initiating specific transactions each time.

This service relates to transactions like renewing subscription to OTT platforms, newspapers and magazines, and utility bill payments.

The issue

Large lenders and payment entities including State Bank of India, ICICI, Citi, HDFC, Axis, HSBC, Visa and Mastercard had asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to postpone the deadline for putting in place a new system to alert customers on ‘standing instruction’ transactions.

The banks were asked to set up the system by March 31, 2021.

The lenders also wanted RBI to exclude transactions against pre-existing standing instructions and those with international merchants from the new conditions for e-mandates on cards for recurring transactions.