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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is removing the limit restrictions on user onboarding on WhatsApp Pay.
Earlier, NPCI had permitted WhatsApp Pay to expand its UPI user base in a phased manner.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has lifted the limit from onboarding UPI users for the third-party app provider WhatsApp Pay with immediate effect, thus allowing the messaging app to provide payment services to all its users. Till now, there was a cap of 100 million users.
With the latest NPCI move, WhatsApp Pay can now extend UPI services to its entire user base in India, NPCI said in a statement on Tuesday.
Earlier, NPCI had permitted WhatsApp Pay to expand its UPI user base in a phased manner, it added.
With this notification, NPCI is removing the limit restrictions on user onboarding on WhatsApp Pay. WhatsApp Pay will continue to comply with all existing UPI guidelines and circulars applicable to existing Third-Party Application Providers (TPAPs), it said.
NPCI, an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks’ Association, is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India (IBA).
NPCI governs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) framework in India.
WhatsApp Pay: How Will It Work?
1. WhatsApp Pay will require the latest version of WhatsApp on your Android or iOS smartphone.
2. To connect your bank account with WhatsApp Pay, you need to have an active bank account and a debit card in India.
3. The phone number should be active while activating the WhatApp Pay as it requires the phone number to identify user’s bank account linked to it.
4. Like other UPI apps, when you use WhatsApp Pay, other UPI users will be able to see their name on the bank account. This requirement is set by NPCI and designed to mitigate fraud across the UPI payments system.
5. While users’ personal messages on WhatsApp are always end-to-end encrypted, the payment descriptions one adds to the transactions are not.
6. However, when you make a payment in a chat, any payment messages you add are end-to-end encrypted. These text messages will not show up on your bank statement.
7. According to reports, WhatsApp does not store your UPI PIN or full bank account number in order to protect your security.
