Reserve Bank of India Proposes One-Hour Delay on Digital Transfers

The Reserve Bank of India released a discussion paper on April 9, 2026, outlining four primary safeguards to combat a surge in digital payment fraud, specifically authorized push payment scams. The central bank proposes a mandatory one-hour delay for account-to-account transfers exceeding 10,000 rupees. This lag is intended to break the psychological control fraudsters exert on victims and allow customers to cancel suspicious transactions before they are executed. This delay would not apply to whitelisted payees, e-mandates, NACH transactions, or merchant payments.

To protect vulnerable populations, the bank suggests requiring approval from a trusted person for transactions over 50,000 rupees if the user is a person with disabilities or is aged 70 and above. Other measures include a kill switch to instantly disable all digital payment channels and an annual aggregate credit cap of 25 lakh rupees for individual and small business accounts to disrupt the use of mule account networks.

These proposals follow data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal showing that reported digital frauds rose more than 10-fold between 2021 and 2025. Total losses increased nearly 40 times, reaching approximately 22,931 crore rupees in 2025. The bank noted that transactions over 10,000 rupees account for 98.5% of the total fraud value. Stakeholders have until May 8, 2026, to provide feedback via the Connect 2 Regulate portal before formal guidelines are issued.