Payments Infrastructure Development Fund

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE FUND

RBI will make an initial contribution of ₹250 crores to the PIDF covering half the fund.
Remaining contribution will be from card issuing banks and card networks operating in the country.
The PIDF will also receive recurring contributions to cover operational expenses from card issuing banks and card networks.
The Reserve Bank will also contribute to yearly shortfalls, if necessary.
As of March 2020, according to data from the RBI,
There were close to 14 million active PoS devices deployed across the country.

The PIDF will be governed through an advisory council and managed and administered by the Reserve Bank.

The idea of a PIDF or an Acceptance Development Fund was first proposed in March 2016.
The RBI published a concept paper aimed at expanding the card acceptance infrastructure in the country.
The paper said, “The main objective of the ADF program is to subsidise the cost of acceptance infrastructure such that it enables banks to speed up their merchant acquiring activities and increase penetration in both existing market segments as well as new markets.”
In October 2019,
The RBI finally announced that it would create an Acceptance Development Fund to increase the penetration of digital payments in specific areas of the country.