The Reserve Bank of India has extended the deadline for complying with card tokenisation norms by six months to June 30, 2022.

The earlier deadline was December 31, 2021.

“In light of various representations received in this regard, we advise … the timeline for storing of CoF data is extended by six months - till June 30, 2022; post this, such data shall be purged,” said the RBI on Thursday.

It has also directed industry stakeholders to devise alternative mechanisms to handle any use case including recurring e-mandates, EMI option or post transaction activities including chargeback handling, dispute resolution, reward or loyalty programme that currently requires storage of CoF data by entities other than card issuers and card networks. However, many players had in recent weeks highlighted concerns over ecosystem readiness to meet the tokenisation guidelines. Industry bodies including Merchant Payments Alliance of India and the Alliance of Digital India Foundation had also sent representations to the RBI seeking an extension of the deadline.

While most large banks and merchants were ready, smaller players were yet to be fully prepared and there were concerns about revenue losses for merchants.

Many payment players have also been launching or are in the midst of launching tokenisation solutions and it was expected that it would take at least two to six months for the whole ecosystem to be fully prepared.

Welcoming the RBI decision, the Payments Council of India said it is a much-needed relief for the industry which has been working hard towards the on-ground implementation of CoF and integration with various stakeholders. “The industry will utilise the next six months to implement appropriate uniform solutions for seamless migration for card holders as well as ensuring adequate security for storage,” it said.

Related Topics