RBI regulations on recurring card payments in India

Overview

India is implementing a new regulatory framework rolled out by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The new rules have a direct impact on recurring transactions (subscriptions) and bill payments. 

In the past years, RBI worked on a system that enables multiple safety and security measures for online payments. Similar to the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in Europe, the new measures require consumers to give an Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for card-no-present (CNP) recurring transactions. 

Starting October 1st, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enacted a new regulatory framework, the Directive of Processing e-mandates. The new RBI directive targets mainly e-mandates for recurring transactions, not one-time payments. The new framework mandates that the use of AFA will be mandatory for any transaction exceeding 15000 INR, which means that merchants selling subscriptions in India might see a rise in payment declines for recurring charges. 

Your subscriptions are safe with 2Checkout (now Verifone) 

The continuity of your subscriptions is safe with 2Checkout (now Verifone), but you might see a drop in renewal rates in India.  

We have reached out to our payment and bank partners from India, and they are working around the clock to make sure their systems are updated to meet the demands of RBI. 

Renewal Notifications for Manual Renewals 

Our system has built-in renewal notifications for Subscriptions and is used extensively as the main tool to notify users of upcoming or pending payments.  

You can set your custom notification schedule for sending out renewal notification emails within the boundaries of a 90-day limit around the renewal date. 

Since the new safety measures imposed by the RBI will require subscribers to manually authorize the payment, you can enable the Manual Renewal function for your customers. They will be able to authorize the payment every time they will be notified to do so.  

Use the Manual Renewal reminder documentation guide to edit email parameters. 

Create Subscription renewal links 

See how you can create subscription renewal links to enable your customers to renew their active and past-due subscriptions on-demand, bypassing the upcoming renewal operation scheduled in the 2Checkout system.  

Dunning Management for Hard Declines 

Use dunning management to reduce declined payments and recover lost revenue from failed authorizations. 2Checkout notifies customers via email about failed renewals, helping them update their payment information in myAccount. 

Dunning management for hard declines is available as part of the 2Recover add-on. To enable it on your account, contact 2Checkout. 

Request payments or Invoices  

Send payment/invoice requests by email to your customers for their subscriptions. The email sent to customers will have a link directing them to a checkout page where they can make a payment instantly. This is how you can set it up. 

For more information, you can contact us at supportplus@2checkout.com.