NPCI sets standardised limits for cash withdrawals and mini statements on AePS transactions

In what could make transactions through Aadhaar enabled Payments Systems more standardised and help customers, the National Payments Corporation of India has introduced limits for cash withdrawals and mini statements.According to the guidelines, acquiring banks will have to implement a maximum limit of five approved cash withdrawal transactions per customer per terminal per day.

Guidelines

Issuers will implement a standardised limit of a minimum of five approved cash withdrawal transactions per month for every customer.Further, issuers will also implement a standardised limit of a minimum of five mini statement transactions per customer per month.These limits have to be implemented by January 15 this year, the NPCI has said in a recent circular.

Two-factor authentication

It has also said that acquirers must implement two-factor authentication for login of business correspondents, agents and merchants at least once a day with one of the factors as Aadhaar based biometric authentication.

“Two factor authentication shall also be required in case of change in BC, agent or merchant operating the terminal,” the NPCI has further said. It has fixed a deadline of January 31 for the implementation of this measure. NPCI had in March 2021 asked banks to implement a minimum monthly limit of five mini statement transactions. Post five transactions, issuer banks can either decline the request or charge a fee.Players have welcomed the decision and said it will ensure uniformity and standardisation of transactions and also prove to be customer-friendly.“A few of the larger acquiring banks had set lower limits for the number of cash withdrawals per customer,” two companies said.

AePS transactions

Cash withdrawal from micro ATMs of AePS has a limit of Rs 10,000 per transaction.

Transactions via AePS have become very popular, especially since the onset of the pandemic.

A total of 9.6 crore transactions worth Rs 25,860.92 crore took place through AePS in December 2021.