Walking the digital financial tightrope

RBI desires unfettered access to payment systems' data for supervisory purposes. But it begs the fundamental question of how, especially in absence of a strong governance framework for data in general

With data breaches tugging at shaky foundations of the digital economy with unnerving regularity, it did not come as a surprise when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on April 5 issued a statement announcing policy measures attempting to fortify the digital financial economy. The build-up to this can arguably be traced back to November 2016 when 86 per cent of the currency in circulation was declared illegal. Demonetisation provided a fillip to digital payments, especially mobile wallets, in a country where access to mobile phones dwarfs access to the formal banking system. The subsequent behavioural nudge by the government