Introduction
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has amended the Master
Directions on Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) through
Notification No. RBI/2024-2025/97, issued on 27 December 2024
(Master Directions). The Master Directions govern the issuance and
operations of PPIs, such as prepaid cards and wallets. They
categorize PPIs into two types: small PPIs, which require minimal
customer details, and full know-your-customer (KYC) PPIs, which
necessitate comprehensive KYC verification.
With this amendment, the RBI permits full KYC PPI holders to
perform United Payment Interface (UPI) transactions using any
third-party UPI application like Google Pay or PhonePe (TPAPs).
Consequently, PPI issuers can link their customers' full KYC
PPIs to their UPI handles. However, the PPI issuers remain
restricted from onboarding customers of other entities, including
banks and alternate PPI issuers. This ensures a well-defined
operational scope for PPI issuers.