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Fintech & Digital PaymentsPolicy|July 12, 2026, 10:49 AM
REGULATION WATCH:

RBI Rules Keep ixigo Voice Payments Tied To Human Authentication

BySendTech Times Fintech DeskNewsroom-edited, source-reviewed coverage|Source: MediaNama
Newsroom brief

ixigo is reviewing voice payments for travel bookings, but RBI rules still require two-factor domestic payment authentication and a verifiable human authorisation record.

Verified against source materialEdited by SendTech Times Fintech Desk
RBI Rules Keep ixigo Voice Payments Tied To Human Authentication
Image source: MediaNama

India's digital-payment rules still require a verifiable human step for domestic transactions, leaving ixigo's planned voice payments dependent on RBI-compliant authentication rather than the voice interface alone, MediaNama reported.

The travel platform is reviewing a feature that would let users pay for travel bookings by voice.

The plan has to fit the Reserve Bank of India's Authentication Mechanisms Directions, 2025, which require two distinct factors for every domestic digital payment, with at least one factor dynamic and unique to the transaction or capable of being proven.

RBI Authentication Rules Shape ixigo Voice Payments

ixigo Group CEO Aloke Bajpai told Mint that the technology is not the main difficulty; safeguards are.

Bajpai said ixigo wants every voice transaction backed by a verifiable record showing that the user authorised it, because a spoken instruction does not automatically leave the same audit trail as a tap.

The RBI directions do not mandate one specific technology for non-card-present payments.

They require at least one authentication factor to be dynamically generated, such as an OTP, or capable of being proven, such as a biometric.

A voiceprint could fit that second route if it qualifies as a provable factor.

A simpler route would keep a human OTP in the payment flow.

Founder-editor Nikhil Pahwa has noted that an agent-assisted payment need not bypass two-factor authentication if the user still receives and supplies the OTP.

E-Mandate Rules Leave A Rs 15,000 Low-Friction Path

Small-value contactless card transactions are already exempt from mandatory two-factor authentication, while recurring transactions under the e-mandate framework do not need repeated authentication after the first payment.

India's Digital Payments E-Mandate Framework, 2026, permits recurring transactions up to Rs 15,000 without an additional factor of authentication after setup.

The framework still requires one human additional factor of authentication to register the mandate and another for the first payment.

That makes ixigo's compliance problem narrower than a full replacement of payment authentication.

The company has to show that a spoken instruction can create valid consent, a reliable audit trail and a clear liability path when a charge is wrongful or accidental.

NPCI Agent Protocol Still Needs RBI Approval

The National Payments Corporation of India is developing a Unified Agent Protocol to let AI agents be registered, verified and authorised to transact over UPI without changing the underlying payment rails.

Business Standard reported that NPCI would verify whether a payment request is genuine, maintain logs of agentic transactions and need RBI approval before rollout.

The protocol raises the same questions as voice payments: who authorises the agent, what limits apply to that authority and who is accountable when the agent exceeds those limits.

An April 2026 International Monetary Fund note also said payment infrastructure needs deterministic, auditable authorisation while AI agents behave probabilistically.

ixigo's TARA Assistant Already Handles Travel Support

ixigo's voice-payment plan extends an AI strategy built around its TARA assistant.

The report said the company's systems handled 4.35 million customer queries and more than 81% of voice calls without human involvement in Q4 FY26.

ixigo Group Co-CEO Rajnish Kumar said AI handled about 90% of all calls during the December 2025 flight disruption.

The company also uses fare-tracking tools, price-prediction agents and autonomous systems that can place boarding passes in Apple and Google Wallets.

The voice-payment plan would extend that automation from travel assistance to the transaction point.

A separate example involved Gnani.ai and Razorpay working on live-call UPI payment capability in February 2026, while Mint-cited Tracxn data put Indian voice-AI funding at $2.71 million in 2021 and $13.9 million in 2025.

The remaining public gaps are RBI approval, launch timing, final voiceprint design, liability terms for accidental charges and the transaction limits that would apply to voice payments.

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