Two new retail payment startups begin testing products under RBI’s regulatory sandbox programme

Jaipur-based Natural Support Consultancy Services and Delhi-based Nucleus Software Export have begun testing their payments solutions. Natural Support Consultancy Services’ product ‘eRupaya’ is a set of NFC-based prepaid cards and NFC-enabled Pos devices to facilitate offline transactions.

Over a year, the Reserve Bank Of India set up a regulatory sandbox for fintech startups to boost innovation. In this, two entities have begun testing offline e-payment facility for remote locations in the country.

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On Tuesday, the Central Bank announced that the Jaipur-based Natural Support Consultancy Services and Delhi-based Nucleus Software Exports have begun testing their payments solutions under the framework.

The regulatory sandbox allows the regulator, innovators, financial service providers, and customers to conduct field tests to collect evidence on the benefits of new financial innovations. In August 2019, the RBI had released the framework for its regulatory sandbox where multiple companies would be allowed to develop and test their products under limited authority controls and supervision.

RBI also made it compulsory for the companies to have insurance cover and a minimum net worth of INR 25 lakh, among other criteria, and need to be accepted for testing under the regulatory sandbox. The government advisory, Niti Aayoy, Digital Payments – Trends, Issues, and Opportunities, the digital payments industry is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2023.