The India Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation (IDPIC) is already live on a pilot basis across eight banks, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is actively working to accelerate its full-scale rollout, RBI Deputy Governor Shirish Chandra Murmu said on Thursday, 18 September 2026. Murmu made the remarks on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai, underscoring the central bank's sharpening focus on cyber resilience in India's digital payments ecosystem.

IDPIC: What the Pilot Covers

'It is already running on a pilot basis in eight banks. We are trying to expedite it,' Murmu said. IDPIC has been set up in consultation with the RBI to create a mechanism for sharing real-time fraud intelligence and alerts with banks and financial institutions. The platform leverages technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data Analytics to detect and flag suspicious transactions before damage is done.

This comes amid a sustained rise in cyber financial frauds targeting digital payment users across India. The government and the RBI have collectively rolled out several measures in recent months to harden the security framework around digital transactions, and IDPIC represents the most architecturally significant of these efforts.

Cash vs Digital: The Coexistence Paradox

Murmu also addressed what he described as an apparent paradox — the simultaneous rise of digital payments and stubbornly high cash holdings in the economy. He explained that while cash as a transactional medium is progressively being displaced by digital modes, it continues to serve as a store of value — a function that has seen no meaningful decline.

'We are looking at cash in circulation... when digital transaction peaks up, to that extent or correspondingly, it should come down. Which we don't see much,' he said. Murmu linked household cash holdings to broader economic conditions, while pointing to increasing formalisation of the economy as a structural driver behind digital payment growth. 'More and more formalization is happening... So we are very hopeful directionally. Digital is picking up very well,' he added.

RBI's Regulatory Output: Over 600 Circulars in a Year

On the pace of regulatory change, Murmu noted that the RBI had issued more than 600 draft and final amendment circulars over the past year alone. He explained that the central bank had reclassified regulated entities into approximately 11 categories, which resulted in several circulars being effectively replicated across different entity types — accounting for part of the high volume.

Notably, the sheer scale of regulatory issuances reflects the RBI's effort to modernise its oversight framework in step with the rapidly evolving digital finance landscape.

What Comes Next

With the IDPIC pilot underway in eight banks, the central bank's next step is to broaden the platform's reach to cover more financial institutions and eventually integrate non-banking payment service providers. The success of the pilot will likely determine the pace and scope of the national rollout, making the coming months a critical window for India's digital payment security architecture.