RBI Issues Circular Limiting Liability Of Customers In Unauthorized Electronic Banking Transactions

Commercial transactions, since the tail end of the last century, have been progressing towards the digital medium. Online retail, digital payments and availing of a plethora of services over the Internet was an inevitability, considering its rise and spread in the last 30-odd years. And non-traditional (i.e. cashless) payment methods have witnessed a meteoric rise over the last few years. According to the World Payments Report, 2017¹, cashless transaction volumes grew 11.2% in 2014-2015 to reach a worldwide figure of 433.1 billion USD! This was fuelled largely by emerging Asian markets, including China, India and Hong Kong, contributing 43.4% of the global market transaction volume. Global payments volume was also driven by the emerging markets, which contributed 30% of the total, and grew at a whopping rate of 21.6% in the past year, as compared to only 6.8% growth of mature established markets.