New Delhi, June 29: The digital payments industry will seek Aadhaar database for customer authentication to comply with the rules set by the Reserve Bank of India. According to a report on Mint, the prepaid payments instrument (PPI) industry will write to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to allow mobile wallet providers to verify customers using the Aadhaar number.

Gaurav Chopra, executive director of the Payments Council of India (PCI), the industry body representing all-digital payment companies in India as quoted in the Mint report, says, "When UIDAI has to recognise a regulated entity, they should recognise all RBI regulated entities. Why create differentiation within the regulated entities? I can understand if you differentiate between regulated and non-regulated ones. But if there are entities, which are RBI regulated, then why a different set of rules for one set of regulated entities and not for others. This is creating a non-level playing field."

The entire process of completing the KYC process has become complicated for wallet companies, after UIDAI has restricted the access of payment companies to its database by classifying them as local authentication user agencies, citing concerns over their security systems. After receiving several questions on the privacy and security raised by the Supreme Court, UIDAI decided to categorise the agencies as either local or global authentication user agency (AUA)s and provide segregated access for the two groups.

According to the Economic Times report, UIDAI said only global AUAs would be allowed access to full eKYC with Aadhaar number, while local agencies will have restricted access. Banks have been classified as global AUAs, and all the payment companies and other entities in the authentication business have been categorised as local ones.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 29, 2018 03:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).