- Reserve Bank of India has eased norms for non-bank entities to set up Bharat Bill Payment operating units. RBI has reduced the net-worth reqirement to Rs 25 crore, which is set to encourage more players in the segment.
- At present, a net worth of Rs 100 crore is required to obtain authorisation for a non-bank BBPOU (Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units).
Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)
- BBPS is an interoperable platform for bill payments and the scope and coverage of BBPS extends to all categories of billers who raise recurring bills.
- Now the RBI has released a circular which states that the minimum net-worth requirement for non-bank Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs) stands reduced to Rs 25 crore.
- Users of BBPS enjoy benefits like standardised bill payment experience, centralised customer grievance redressal mechanism and prescribed customer convenience fee.
- The reduction in net-worth requirements follows an announcement regarding the same by the central bank in April.
- The RBI had said while BBPS has seen an increase in the volume of transactions as well as number of onboarded billers, it is observed that there has not been a corresponding growth in the number of non-bank BBPOUs.
- The requirement of Rs 100 crore net worth for a non-bank BBPOU to obtain authorisation was viewed as a constraint to greater participation, it had said.
To increase participation, the RBI had decided to align the net worth requirement of non-bank BBPOUs with that of other nonbank participants which handle customer funds (like payment aggregators) and have a similar risk profile.
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