The safety net of digital financial literacy

The exponential growth of the digital payment landscape in India speaks volumes about the payment platforms being user friendly and economical. Awareness of digital fraud, along with digital payment, is crucial to making the ecosystem robust. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) launch of the “Har Payment Digital” mission marks another push to popularize digital payment across the country. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, while launching the mission, highlighted in his speech that the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has emerged as the most popular and preferred payment mode in India, pioneering person-to-person (P2P) as well as person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions that account for 75% of the total digital payments. Some other data highlights in his speech indicate the accelerated pace of growth of digital payments in the country. The volume of UPI transactions has increased from Rs 0.45 crore in January 2017 to Rs 804 crore in January 2023, while the value of UPI transactions has increased from just Rs 1,700 crore to Rs 12.98 lakh crore during this period. The central government’s support of the incentive scheme for the promotion of RuPAY debit cards and BHIM-UPI transactions has also been instrumental in popularizing digital payment. Under the scheme, the bank provides incentives for point-of-sale (POS), promoting point-of-sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions using RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions. Direct Benefit Transfer of various government payments to beneficiaries of central and state government schemes has led to significant growth in digital payment. Over 90 lakh DBT payments are processed daily in the country, which also says a lot about how financial inclusion has been instrumental in promoting digital transactions. It has also put an end to the leakage of subsidies before they reach the end beneficiaries, who were earlier dependent on middlemen to get their checks released from government offices and get them encashed through physical transactions at the bank. For beneficiaries, digital payments have also reduced long delays and the trouble of traveling to faraway brick and mortar bank branches and waiting in long lines. Sometimes they had to make multiple visits if the banking hours were over before their turn came. These beneficiaries have realized the importance of digital banking when payments get credited at the click of a button on a digital device by officials from the concerned government departments. Many of these beneficiaries did not take much time getting familiarized with the digital ecosystem, which is a major driver of the rapidly growing digital transaction volume. Apart from these factors, the fall in cash circulation post-demonetization and social distancing norms during the COVID-19 pandemic fueled growth in cashless transactions among small businesses and average consumers. Access to bank accounts round the clock and anywhere instead of the fixed hours of a physical bank branch and instantaneous money transfers have made life comfortable and saved time. Financial inclusion and the digital footprint of the cash flow of new users of digital payment systems have facilitated the ability of financial institutions to ascertain the eligibility of customers seeking retail lending or loans for small businesses, thereby expanding the reach of the formal credit markets. About 45,000 villages in the country still do not have access to 4G internet connectivity, pointing towards the digital divide that needs to be bridged if the benefits of digital transactions are to reach every single village. Over 8,000 villages in the Northeast region not having access to 3G or 4G connectivity says a lot about the gap in border areas. Achieving the target set by the government for bringing all villages in the northeast under 4G connectivity by December this year is not only important for the country’s security needs, it will also lead to a significant rise in digital transactions in the region where it is most needed by residents in remote villages along the international borders. The government’s push for improving digital connectivity and promoting digital transactions has brought a digital revolution to the country. The increase in incidents of ignorant people falling prey to digital frauds is an area of concern. While digital payments are safe and secure, fraudsters are taking advantage of the lack of digital financial literacy to steal digital identities, dupe users of digital transactions into sharing their vital credentials like passwords, etc., and end up having their accounts emptied by such fraud. RBI data shows that the number of financial frauds has increased even though the amount involved has decreased by about 46%. This is indicative of new users of digital transactions not being adequately informed about the safety measures against identity theft and various methods adopted by fraudsters. This hard reality brings to the fore the importance of prioritizing digital financial literacy to strengthen their safety net against digital financial fraud. The RBI campaign theme for Digital Payment Awareness Week, Digital Payment Apnao, Auron ko bhiSikhao” (Adopt digital payments and also teach others), can have a sub theme of imparting digital financial literacy.