New Delhi, Oct 16 (KNN)  To ensure safe electronic banking for its clients, the Reserve Bank of India has set up a working group to curb cyber fraud and devise comprehensive recommendations for enhancing security in internet.

RBI Deputy Governor Harun R Khan in an official release said, “The recommendations included authentication methodologies, changes in mobile phone numbers, beneficiary management aspects, etc. Based on these recommendations, instructions have been issued to banks offering electronic banking services to their customers.”

RBI has constituted a technical committee on mobile banking, chaired by Director, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) B Sambamurthy.
The Committee will examine the challenges faced by banks in increasing the usage of mobile banking including the usage of USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) channel. The Committee will examine various options including the feasibility of using encrypted SMS based applications for funds transfer that can run on any type of handset for expansion of mobile banking in the country.

Khan said, “We recognise the importance of standardisation, portability and interoperability which will not only lead to harmonisation of payment processing across systems but also will bring several benefits. Convergence of various payment systems could make payments truly channel agnostic.”

Taking cognisance of the recent developments and attendant unpredictability of cyber-attacks and vulnerability of electronic payments to misuse, Reserve Bank instructed banks to introduce certain minimum checks and balances to mitigate the impact of such attacks.

The mobile payments in India during the year 2012-13 have reached 53.30 million in volume terms and 59.90 billion in value terms. The growth rate in 2012-13 has been 108 per cent in volume and 229 per cent in value terms.  (KNN/ST)