BENGALURU (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India imposed a penalty of 24.1 million rupees (nearly $288,000) on Visa in relation to its usage of an unauthorised payment transfer method, the central bank said on Friday.

"It was observed that the entity (Visa) had implemented a payment authentication solution without regulatory clearance from RBI," the central bank said in a statement, without providing details on the transgression.

In February, the RBI had ordered the credit card company to stop using an unauthorised route to make some commercial payments, per a Reuters report.

The central bank has aimed to tighten scrutiny of the processes followed by financial technology, or fintech, companies.

($1 = 83.6990 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Varun Hebbalalu in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)