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The Reserve Bank of India is weighing a plan to pause large digital payments for up to an hour before completing them, as fraud losses from online transactions crossed ₹22,000 crore last year.In a discussion paper, the RBI's Department of Payment and Settlement Systems proposed four options to check surging digital payment fraud, which has ballooned from 2.6 lakh reported cases worth ₹551 crore in 2021 to 28 lakh cases worth ₹22,931 crore in 2025, according to data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.Under the most significant proposal, banks would be required to hold account-to-account transfers above ₹10,000 for one hour at the payer's end before executing them. During this window, customers would retain the option to cancel.If a transaction appears suspicious, the bank would be required to seek reconfirmation from the payer before proceeding. Merchant payments, e-mandates, NACH transactions and cheques would be exempt. Customers could also whitelist specific payees to bypass the delay.The RBI noted that transactions above ₹10,000 make up around 45% of reported fraud cases by volume but account for approximately 98.5% of total fraud value, justifying the threshold as a targeted safeguard.The central bank said most digital frauds today do not involve a technical breach of systems. Instead, fraudsters use social engineering, impersonation and coercion to pressure victims into transferring money themselves, a category known as Authorised Push Payment or APP fraud. Once funds move through near-instant channels like UPI or IMPS, recovery becomes extremely difficult."Fraudsters typically rely on creating urgency and maintaining continuous psychological pressure on the victim to prevent deliberation. Introducing lag at the payer's end breaks the fraudster's psychological control," the paper noted.Three other proposals were also placed on the table. The first would require citizens aged 70 and above and persons with disabilities to nominate a "trusted person" whose authentication would be mandatory for transfers above ₹50,000, a threshold the RBI said covers nearly 92% of fraud value reported to NCRP.The second proposal would cap annual aggregate credits into individual and small business accounts at ₹25 lakh. Amounts beyond this threshold would be held as "shadow credit" accessible only after the account holder satisfies the bank about the transaction's legitimacy. If no justification is provided within 30 days, the funds would be returned to the sender.The fourth proposal involves a "kill switch" that would allow customers to instantly disable all digital payment channels from their account in one step, a feature already operational in Singapore and being rolled out by some banks in Australia.The RBI acknowledged the tradeoffs involved, noting that a mandatory lag conflicts with the core design principle of instant payments and could confuse users. It also flagged that fraudsters may simply pressure victims into whitelisting transactions, reducing the mechanism's effectiveness.Stakeholders have until May 8, 2026, to submit comments through RBI's Connect 2 Regulate portal. The central bank said it will consider issuing draft guidelines after reviewing feedback.