India's RBI weighs selective delays to curb fraud

India’s central bank is weighing a simple anti-scam idea: make some digital payments wait. A discussion paper from the Reserve Bank of India says account-to-account transfers above 10,000 rupees could be held for one hour before the money leaves the sender, instead of moving instantly. (economictimes.com) The same paper says users aged 70 and above could face extra authentication checks before certain payments go through. The proposal is still at the consultation stage, but it shows the Reserve Bank is willing to slow down a narrow slice of payments if that gives banks time to catch scams. (economictimes.com) That is a sharp turn in a country that built its payments system around speed. The Reserve Bank’s December 2024 Payment System Report says retail digital payments in India jumped from 162 crore transactions in 2012-13 to more than 16,416 crore in 2023-24, roughly a 100-fold increase in 12 years. (rbi.org.in) A big reason is Unified Payments Interface, the instant bank-to-bank rail that powers everything from a 20-rupee tea purchase to a rent transfer. Government data said Unified Payments Interface handled 18.39 billion transactions worth 24 lakh crore rupees in June 2025 alone, and accounted for about 85% of India’s digital payments. (pib.gov.in) The speed that made Unified Payments Interface popular also makes fraud harder to stop once a victim taps “send.” A scammer only needs a few seconds to push money into a mule account, and after that the recovery process becomes a chase across banks, wallets, and telecom records. (rbi.org.in) The Reserve Bank has already been tightening the pipes around that problem. In a January 17, 2025 circular, it told banks, payment companies, and other regulated firms to use the Department of Telecommunications’ Mobile Number Revocation List and monitor accounts tied to recycled or misused phone numbers, because mobile numbers are used for one-time passwords, alerts, and account verification. (rbi.org.in) Its new Payments Vision 2028, released on March 27, 2026, says the next challenge is no longer just getting more people onto digital payments. The document says the focus now is “deepening trust” in payment systems and building an “AI-led, data-driven approach,” while also adding user safeguards against fraud. (rbi.org.in) The interesting part is that the central bank is not betting only on invisible software watching in the background. A one-hour cooling-off period is visible friction, like a bank transfer version of the “are you sure?” delay that email services use before sending a message you might regret. (economictimes.com) That matters most in the kinds of scams built around panic and urgency. If a victim is being pressured on a live call by someone pretending to be a police officer, tax official, or bank employee, a forced one-hour gap creates time for a family member, fraud team, or the customer to realize the story is fake before the money disappears. (rbi.org.in) The age-based checks point to another pattern regulators are seeing: older users are often targeted by social-engineering fraud, where the criminal does not hack the bank and instead manipulates the person. Extra authentication for customers 70 and older would not ban payments, but it would add another gate on higher-risk transactions. (economictimes.com) If the rule is adopted, India would be choosing selective slowness over universal slowness. Small everyday payments could stay instant, while larger or more vulnerable transactions would get the digital equivalent of a cooling-off lock before the door opens. (economictimes.com)