How RBI’s Payments Vision 2028 could reshape India’s digital payments 

The initiatives include a facility for users to enable or disable transactions across any digital payment mode through issuer channels; a shared responsibility framework for limiting customer liability in digital fraud; and a Cyber Key Risk Indicators (KRI) framework for non-bank payment system operators. Other measures under consideration are electronic cheques, enhanced access to payment data and the feasibility of a central Payments Switching Service (PaSS). Collectively, these proposals reflect a strong emphasis on payment system resilience, which India must continue to build as digital transactions become even more pervasive and interconnected.
 

One of the most notable observations is the shift toward stronger user protection and shared accountability. It says the proposed shared responsibility framework could mark a structural evolution in consumer protection. It would distribute liability for unauthorized digital transactions more equitably between the remitter’s bank and the beneficiary’s bank or acquiring institution. This approach moves away from leaving the customer as the default risk bearer for fraud beyond their control. The focus on accountability and consumer trust is central to RBI’s Payments Vision 2028, reinforcing the idea that the next phase of India’s digital payments ecosystem will depend as much on reliability and safeguards as on speed and convenience.

Cross-border payments also emerge as a key priority. The RBI envisions periodic reports on India’s cross-border payments landscape, a comprehensive review of the ecosystem to improve efficiency, and a possible single-window-like authorization process under the Payment and Settlement Act, 2007 and The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These measures are positioned as enabling faster, cheaper, more transparent and more accessible cross-border payments for exporters, corporates, businesses and MSMEs. In that sense, the future of payments in India is not only seen as a domestic story of scale and innovation but also as one increasingly shaped by global integration and the ambition to strengthen India’s international payment flows.
 

Underscoring the importance of interoperability in shaping the Indian payments ecosystem for 2028, initiatives such as PaSS — an open and interoperable card ecosystem — and full interoperability across TReDS platforms could significantly reduce switching frictions and weaken traditional lock-in models. That could intensify competition across the sector, requiring banks, FinTechs and payment networks to differentiate more clearly through service quality, customer experience, risk intelligence and value-added capabilities. This could have major implications for the broader RBI payments strategy, particularly as the ecosystem moves toward open architecture models and more dynamic forms of competition.
 

In assessing the implications for ecosystem participants, the report says, banks may face intensified competition while also needing to invest more in technology, real-time controls and enhanced risk management. FinTechs could benefit from clearer regulatory pathways and sandbox-led innovation, although rising compliance requirements and tighter sponsor-bank oversight may increase operating costs. Payment networks, meanwhile, may find opportunities to evolve into providers of resilience, fraud intelligence and data-driven services, even as interoperability reduces exclusivity and pricing power.