description
Overview

Customer Experience Guidelines

Version	0.9.0
Release status	Beta
Document Link	Google Spreadsheet (view-only)
Issue tracking	Github Issues
Discussions	Github Discussions

Purpose

The purpose of this checklist is to serve as a common reference for all market participants, with respect to the dos/don'ts of customer experience design. Such a common guideline will serve to provide clarity for developers, a commonality for citizens, and compliance assurance for businesses.

The dos/don'ts are derived keeping in mind the letter and spirit of existing regulations (RBI AA Master Directions and ReBIT Technical Standards), as well as market feedback on what constitutes a "good" customer experience.

Scope

The checklist covers dos and don'ts for digital interfaces offered by:

1. FIUs
2. AAs
3. FIPs
4. Customer interface partners - i.e. entities that are not direct participants in the AA ecosystem in any of the three roles mentioned but partner, typically with either an FIU or an AA, to offer customer interfaces - for activities such as lead generation, offer a comparison, customer education about consent-driven financial services.

Areas in scope

The checklist covers the following sub-areas governing Customer Experience:

1. Customer Education
2. AA Network Information
3. Customer Authentication
4. Brand Identity
5. Grievance Redressal
6. Privacy Protection
7. Consent Management
8. Notifications

The checklist does not prescribe specifics around design elements - such as placement of elements, size, styling, etc.

Structure

The checklist is organized as a mapping of five attributes, defining each checklist item:

1. Area - refer to the "areas in scope" description above.
2. Implementer - defines whether the checklist item is relevant for an FIU, AA, FIP, or Customer Interface Partner.
3. Checklist Item - refers to the actual question that must be answered, to verify compliance.
4. Requirement - refers to what the "right" answer is, for an implementer to deem itself compliant with the checklist item.
5. Requirement Level - refers to the definitions as provided in IETF RFC2119 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2119)
   1. MUST This word, or the terms "REQUIRED" or "SHALL", means that the definition is an absolute requirement of the specification.
   2. MUST NOT This phrase, or the phrase "SHALL NOT", mean that the definition is an absolute prohibition of the specification.
   3. SHOULD This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full implications must be understood and carefully weighed before choosing a different course.
   4. SHOULD NOT This phrase, or the phrase "NOT RECOMMENDED" means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances when the particular behavior is acceptable or even useful, but the full implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed before implementing any behavior described with this label.
   5. MAY This word, or the adjective "OPTIONAL", means that an item is truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because a particular marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels that it enhances the product while another vendor may omit the same item. An implementation that does not include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with another implementation that does include the option, though perhaps with reduced functionality. In the same vein, an implementation that does include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with another implementation that does not include the option (except, of course, for the feature the option provides.)