RBI

DPI Weekly Deep Dive — RBI’s 2FA Mandate Reshapes Digital Payments | Week of April 6-12, 2026 Executive Summary India’s digital payments landscape underwent its most significant security transformation since UPI’s launch on April 1, 2026. The Reserve Bank of India’s Authentication Mechanisms for Digital Payment Transactions Directions, 2025 came into full effect, mandating two-factor authentication (2FA) for all domestic digital payments. This regulatory overhaul moves beyond the prevalent SMS-based OTP model to embrace biometrics, device binding, hardware tokens, and risk-based authentication—representing a fundamental shift in how 200+ billion annual digital transactions are secured.1 ...