Payment Gateways – A Necessity for Trusted Websites

In 2017, about 25800 cases involving online hackers worth almost Rs. 179 crore was reported in India. These cases were all related to fraudulent activities involving online credit/debit cards transactions and internet banking.

                                       

On the other hand, digital transactions are on the rise month on month. It touched a figure of 1.11 billion in January 2018 which was a rise of 4.73% from December 2017. These figures included transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, internet banking, UPI, prepaid payment instruments like the digital wallet and unstructured supplementary service data. Online payments using United Payments Interface has registered a growth of 7000% from the time it was launched in 2016. The other payment gateway or mode that has shown aggressive growth is the virtual wallet payment system even with stricter Know Your Customer norms laid down by the RBI.

Digital India is slowly and steadily transforming from a dream to reality. Hence proper systems and regulations need to be in place so that acts of cyber crimes are reduced to all zero level. With high-grade security payment gateways and use of anti-fraud tools, e-commerce sites and online portals are successfully able to turn their platforms into fortresses. Payment gateways suffice double duties –

1.     Their primary task is to ensure that consumers from different walks of life within different age group, sex, and education level can perform online transaction with ease – be it payment of bills, mobile recharge, transferring money from one account to another, booking movie tickets, paying their monthly installments of insurance or even order from a restaurant. User interfaces should be simple and easy to understand and operate even for a person who is not a tech-savvy person.

2.    The other job is to ensure that the backend operations are conducted in complete privacy, safeguarding the sensitive personal data of customers such as card numbers, validity, CVV as well as banking details.

Internet banking is no longer limited only to personal computers and laptops. Customers today use their handphone majorly or better known as a smartphone to shop online, pay bills through various payment gateway aggregator Apps, access and use social media sites and Apps and more. Hence online payment related security is no longer a minor topic of discussion. It needs to be part of every merchant’s boardroom strategy. Customers need to be informed and educated about this nuisance and methods that they can adopt at their end for conducting safer internet related activities. Government regulatory bodies especially banks and the Reserve Bank of India have to share the responsibility of getting merchants as well as end users educated on the same.

Some mandatory rules are there already – like payment gateways need to be PCI-DSS compliant and there needs to be the use of One Time Password. Use of UPI that permits transfer of money between two parties instantly and is RBI approved is one of the most secure means of conducting online business without requiring the users to type in their card details or Netbanking or virtual wallet password.