The Reserve Bank of India vide its notification dated 6th August 2020 has introduced an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) System for resolving customer disputes and grievances pertaining to digital payments, using a system-driven and rule-based mechanism with zero or minimal manual intervention.
RBI has directed the Payment System Operators (PSOs) and their participants to implement an ODR system for disputes and grievances related to failed transactions in their respective payment systems by 1st January 2021 and based on experience gained, ODR arrangement would later be extended to cover disputes and grievances other than those related to failed transactions.
The Minimum Requirements of the ODR System shall be as follows:
- The ODR system should be a transparent, rule-based, system-driven, user-friendly and unbiased mechanism for resolving customer disputes and grievances, with zero or minimal manual intervention.
- The PSO and its PSPs shall provide the customers an access for lodging the disputes and grievances relating to failed transactions, irrespective of such transactions being on-us or off-us in nature.
- The process of lodging the dispute or grievance shall be simple and shall involve only necessary minimum details.
- The ODR system should be made capable of automatically fetching full details based on the information provided by the customer. The aspect of data confidentiality shall specifically be taken care of while designing such parameters.
- In case of mobile phone-based systems like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), third party app providers (TPAPs) shall also provide customers with a facility to lodge disputes and grievances through the same mobile app used for making payments, which shall be integrated with the ODR system.
