Mandate cancellation

NACH Debit mandate can be cancelled via the sponsor bank or via the destination bank.

NACH Debit mandates can be cancelled in two ways:

1. Input cancellation: By a merchant, via the sponsor bank.

2. Inward cancellation: By a customer, via the destination bank.

Mandate cancel statuses

Mandate cancel_status can take the following values:

• cancel_nil: no cancellation has been requested to date. Mandate status remains active.

• cancel_requested: request has been made to cancel the active mandate. Mandate status remains active.

• cancel_submitted: cancel request has been submitted to sponsor bank. Mandate status remains active.

• cancel_confirmed: cancel request has been confirmed. Mandate status changes to cancelled.

• cancel_failed: cancel request has failed. Mandate status remains as active. Cancellation can be reattempted as in cancel_nil.

• cancel_received: LotusPay has been informed by the sponsor bank of a cancellation that was initiated by the destination bank (inward). Mandate status changes to cancelled.

Input cancellation

In LotusPay you can cancel a mandate in the dashboard, or via the API, if the following conditions are met:

1. The mandate status is active. Only active mandates can be cancelled.

2. The mandate cancellation status is cancel_nil or cancel_failed. You can't cancel a mandate that already has a cancellation in process.

3. The mandate has no submitted debits. Wait until the debits have been processed.

4. The mandate has been active for at least two days. Wait two days after mandate activation to give the sponsor bank and destination bank sufficient time to update the mandate status. (If a mandate is missing a Date Response, it can't be cancelled. Email LotusPay Support to update the mandate).

5. The mandate cancellation feature is enabled for your merchant account. Email LotusPay Support to request activation if not already enabled.

6. The mandate's sponsor bank has provided LotusPay with a mandate cancellation integration. This is currently enabled for sponsor banks Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC FIRST Bank and Yes Bank.

When you request cancellation of a mandate in LotusPay, the mandate's status remains active for the time being, but its cancel_status changes from cancel_nil (or cancel_failed) to cancel_requested, and then (usually immediately) to cancel_submitted once LotusPay has submitted the cancel input to your sponsor bank. Within one working day, you should see the cancel_status progress to cancel_confirmed, and the mandate status change from active to cancelled. If NPCI or your sponsor bank reject the input for any reason, the cancel_status will progress to cancel_failed.

If you see the cancel_status remain in cancel_submitted stage for more than one working day, it's likely that your sponsor bank has not responded. Please contact Support for further assistance.

Since mandate cancellations do not require the customer's authorisation, the destination bank will always accept the cancellation. Therefore, the cancellation is effective as soon as NPCI acknowledges the cancellation input request, even if the destination bank takes time to respond.

If you cancel a mandate directly with the sponsor bank, the mandate status will not be updated in LotusPay.

Inward cancellation

For inward cancellation, LotusPay will update a mandate's status to cancelled if we have an inward cancellation integration with that sponsor bank, or if NPCI rejects two consecutive debit inputs with reason 'INVALID UMRN OR INACTIVE MANDATE'.

You may find that a mandate appears active in LotusPay, you initiate a debit, and the debit response  says invalid mandate ('INVALID UMRN OR INACTIVE MANDATE') or a sponsor bank mandate report states that a mandate is cancelled. This means that we don't have an inward cancellation integration with that sponsor bank, so we were not informed beforehand of the mandate's cancelled status. You should go by the sponsor bank's report. We mark the mandate as cancelled upon receiving any debit rejection like this.

NPCI NACH Procedural Guidelines for offering mandate cancellation feature

NPCI requires creditors (merchants) to offer debtors (end customers) option for mandate cancellation.

• B2B segment: customer can request cancellation to merchant via online process or email process.

• B2C segment: customer can request cancellation to merchant via online process (preferred) or email process.

Online process means displaying a list of active mandates, authenticating the customer via SMS OTP, accepting the cancellation request for a mandate, displaying cancellation status updates and sending SMS updates. If you find this to be too challenging you can simply accept the cancellation request via email instead.

In either online or email options, you should provide a web page showing the customer detailed information about NACH mandate cancellation, offering one or both options, and you should authenticate the customer before accepting the cancellation request.

See the following NACH circulars for more information:

• Circular 2020-21/013 - Facility for cancellation of mandates to be provided to customer

• Circular 2020-21/024 - Facility for cancellation of mandates extension of time

• Circular 2020-21/025 - Facility for cancellation of mandates to be provided to customers

• Circular 2021-22/028 - Clarification on facility for cancellation of mandates to be provided to customers for B2B segment

Creditors using their own utility code should submit the declaration letter to their sponsor bank as per the NPCI requirement, in the format given in Circular 024.