Overview

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the Foreign Currency Settlement System at GIFT IFSC, enabling near real-time foreign-currency settlement and reducing the usual 36–48 hour delay.
• RBI and the Department of Financial Services unveiled UPI Multi‑Signatory, hands‑free UPI Lite on smart glasses, on‑device biometric authentication, Aadhaar FaceRD for PIN setup, and UPI cash withdrawals at Micro ATMs.
• NPCI and RBI linked the FX Retail Platform with Bharat Connect, allowing retail users to buy US dollars through participating banking or payment apps connected via BBPS.
• Biometric authentication for UPI transactions begins on Oct. 8, aiming to accelerate payments and cut reliance on PIN entry for hundreds of millions of users.
• The RBI is building a Digital Payments Intelligence platform for real-time fraud detection, and SEBI with NPCI introduced a dedicated UPI handle and the ‘SEBI Check’ tool to verify intermediaries and curb impersonation.