NPCI nod to WhatsApp for beta launch of BHIM UPI payments

NPCI nod to WhatsApp for beta launch of BHIM UPI payments

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Friday said it has given its consent to Facebook-owned WhatsApp to roll out Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-enabled payments for a beta launch, with a limited user base of one million and a low per-transaction limit. NPCI did not specify what the per-transaction limit permissible for WhatsApp is.

On February 9, WhatsApp had enabled an option to make payments using UPI for select users, with ICICI Bank as the partner lender.

In a statement, NPCI said, “Four banks will join the multi-bank BHIM UPI model in phases (in the coming weeks) and full feature product shall be released after the beta test is successful. Multi-bank model offer advantages such as transaction load distribution between banks and helps to integrate popular apps easily with BHIM UPI.”

It added that broad principles for interoperability, such as the ability to send and receive money through any UPI ID, intent and collect call and capabilities to read and generate BHIM and Bharat QR code are required in any UPI app in its final form.

“BHIM UPI-enabled app which fulfills such principles only will be permissible for full-scale public launch,” NPCI said.