India central bank's push towards card security likely to hit merchants, lenders - industry sources

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo is seen at the gate of its office in New Delhi, India, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Altaf Hussain/File Photo/File Photo

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India's plans to move towards card tokenisation is likely to hit a wide range of companies from major e-commerce firms and food delivery firms to lenders, while increasing the use of cash, said industry sources and bankers.

RBI issued guidelines in March 2020 saying that merchants will not be allowed to save card information on their websites to boost data security. It issued fresh guidelines in September 2021 giving companies until the end of the year to comply with the regulations and offering them the option to tokenise.