You will soon be able to receive and send money, in addition to making payments, using your mobile wallets. You will also be able to use mobile wallets at ATMs to withdraw cash and at point-of-sale terminals (card-swiping machines). In short, your mobile wallets will function like bank accounts where you'll be able to transfer money from a wallet to a bank account or to another person's wallet.
This comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday made it mandatory for all prepaid instruments (PPIs) such as mobile wallets and prepaid cards to be interoperable. So far, it was only voluntary for PPIs to be interoperable. The central bank has also allowed PPIs to become members of RBI-operated centralised payment systems — RTGS (real-time gross settlement) and NEFT (national electronic funds transfer).
“If you put all of the announcements about PPIs together and look at the big picture, you will realise that they will be on a par with banks for most practical purposes," Ayan Agarwal, vice-president, Transcorp International a financial services company told Mint.
Agarwal explained that once the new regulations related to PPIs come into effect, mobile wallets may be used to pay fees, house rent and other expenses that required making bank transfers so far.
This would provide an option for someone who doesn’t want to use a bank account for transfers or swipe cards to make payments.
According to the RBI, the facilities, however, will be available to those who have done a “full KYC" (know your customer) with the issuer of PPI.
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