Report No. 276

6. Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007

5.14 The Reserve Bank of India is the sole authority in India to regulate all forms of electronic payment under the Act, 2007.

5.15 Section 4(2) thereof provides that any payment system or clearing house with majority of the equity held by a foreign bank requires prior authorisation of the RBI to operate in India.

5.16 Under section 17 of the Act, 2007, the Reserve Bank of India has been given the right to draft policies, in accordance with this Act, on demand for almost everything involving payment processing in India, which are to be compulsorily complied with as provided in section 19 of the Act.

5.17 In the past, RBI has exercised the powers under this Act to achieve its objective, by going after PayPal India96, Neteller and Entro Pay 97. If the RBI were to similarly decide to go after gambling processors, the legal framework and authority, as it already exists, would, in fact, make it possible to curb the functioning of these gambling processors.