RBI and Banks to Launch Digital Payment Intelligence Platform (DPIP)

Syllabus: GS3/Economy

In News

• Major public and private sector banks are collaborating to develop the Digital Payment Intelligence Platform (DPIP) as a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Digital Payment Intelligence Platform (DPIP)

• It aims to strengthen fraud risk management by enabling real-time data sharing and intelligence gathering to detect and prevent fraudulent digital transactions.
• The institutional framework is being jointly developed by public and private banks, recognizing fraud as a shared threat.
• The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) is building a prototype in collaboration with 5–10 banks using advanced technologies.
• The platform is expected to become operational in the next few months.

Need and Purpose 

• Cybercrime, particularly digital financial fraud, is a growing threat in India, affecting millions and causing massive financial losses.
• RBI’s FY25 report highlights a threefold rise in bank frauds to ₹36,014 crore from ₹12,230 crore in FY24.
  • Public sector banks reported ₹25,667 crore in frauds (mainly in loans/advances).
  • Private sector banks saw the highest number of frauds in digital payments (card/internet).
• The DPIP is thus a proactive step to secure India’s growing digital financial ecosystem.
  • It will tackle the rising digital payment frauds and aims to enhance fraud detection and prevention through real-time data sharing and intelligence gathering.

Challenges 

• Fraudsters typically exploit victims through impersonation, phishing for banking credentials, or stealing card details, and then launder the stolen money through multiple accounts to evade detection. 
• Investigations face major challenges such as delayed reporting, victims erasing evidence, and slow, unstructured data sharing from financial institutions.

Other related steps

• The Government, along with financial regulators like RBI and NPCI, is actively strengthening cybersecurity to combat digital financial frauds.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to enable public reporting of cybercrimes, routing cases to respective law enforcement agencies. 
• The ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System’ has helped save around Rs. 4386 crore from 13.36 lakh complaints. 
• RBI has issued guidelines mandating security controls for digital payments and introduced an AI tool, ‘MuleHunter,’ to detect money mules. 
• NPCI has implemented security measures like device binding, two-factor authentication, transaction limits, and AI-based fraud monitoring for UPI transactions. 

Suggestions and way forward 

• Financial fraud in India requires a combined effort involving technology, regulatory reforms, faster data sharing, and public awareness. 
• Cooperation among banks, fintech companies, law enforcement, and consumers is essential to protect the digital financial system and build a secure, trustworthy environment.
  •  Key prevention measures include multi-device login alerts, disabling screen-sharing on banking apps, and mandating clear, detailed bank statements.

Source :TH