New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday, January 8, issued guidelines on the use of tokenisation-a way to mask sensitive card data with unique symbols or elements.

The tokenisation for debit/credit/prepaid card transactions will be used to perform the transactions in contactless mode at Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, for Quick Response (QR) code payments, etc.

“For now, this facility will be offered only through mobile phones and tablets and its extension to other devices will be examined by the regulator later, based on the experience gained,” RBI stated.

To ensure security of data, the RBI stated that adequate safeguards will be put in place such that PAN cannot be found out from the token and vice versa, by anyone except the card network. Any actual card data, token and other relevant details will be stored in a secure mode, and token requestors will not be allowed to store PAN or any other card detail.

Subject to conditions, these guidelines permit authorised card payment networks to offer card tokenisation services to any token requestor.

To avail these services a card holder has to register the card on the token requestor’s app by giving explicit consent. The service is free of cost with no service charges.

All existing instructions of the RBI on safety and security of card transactions will continue to be applicable for tokenised card transactions also.