New Delhi, Sept. 25 -- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday rolled out a new framework for authenticating digital payments beyond two-factor authentication (2FA), which will come into force from 1 April 2026.

The new rules are part of the Reserve Bank of India (Authentication Mechanisms for Digital Payment Transactions) Directions, 2025, announced today.

I. Card issuers are encouraged to introduce new factors of authentication by leveraging technological advancements. However, it does NOT mean that SMS-based OTP as an authentication tool would get discontinued.

II. The latest direction also enable card issuers to embrace additional risk-based checks beyond the minimum two-factor authentication. This could be based on the fraud r...