WhatsApp gets nod from NPCI for enabling in-app bigger payments
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| Image Souce: Google |
Messaging giant’s app
WhatsApp has been granted permission by the National Payment Corporation of
India (NPCI) to develop in-app biggest payments and money transfer using UPI.
Messaging app WhatsApp
Pay has been operating in beta version here since its launch in February with
limited exposure to users. The company started its P2P (peer to peer) payments
on the UPI platform here but it is restricted to only 10 lakh users.
Speaking to the Times
of India, MD and CEO, AP Hota NPCI confirmed that WhatsApp had received a
nod from the payment institution. We have permitted multi bank partnership as
WhatsApp did not want all transaction routed via one bank when payment loads
are high.
Hota said, Players
like WhatsApp, Google are very large in size and thus partnering with multiple
banks makes sense to ensure a smooth payment process. Google is waiting for the
RBI’s approval to go live on UPI. Online merchants like Amazon and Uber are
also in final stage of testing before enabling UPI.
The report also
claims interest from the likes of Amazon and Uber who are also said to be in
their final stages of testing before enabling customers to make payments using
UPI.
WhatsApp CEO Chris
Daniels had last week met IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss rising
challenges like violence and lynching’s originating from forwards on the app.
Sources in the NPCI
said the hot button issues surrounding the messaging platform have snowballed
into an election matter and the Facebook Company may not get permission for a
full-scale rollout of the payment service.
Data localization is
another hurdle that WhatsApp faces before it could expand the payments
services. The RBI has asked all payments companies to store user’s data within
India.
A report said, Despite
the RBI mandate, most foreign players have not acted on this matter.