WhatsApp is reported to be in talks with State Bank of India (SBI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and other institutions to launch a peer-to-peer payments system that will be powered by government’s aspirational Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
According to a report by The Economic Times, the Facebook-owned messaging App is looking for different ways to integrate the payment system on its platform. “Due to the complexity of the architecture, WhatsApp is in discussions with the State Bank of India, NPCI and few other banks to devise ways to integrate their systems with the bank and with NPCI,” a senior SBI official said to the publication.
The report further adds that in order to make a payment “WhatsApp will identify the recipient and the UPI layer will allow funds to get settled between two parties.” This is in line with the previous report that suggestedWhatsApp is looking to foray into UPI-based payments in India.
However, it will not be the first of its kind as Hike Messenger recently introduced its Hike Wallet. Through this feature, one can transfer money and recharge right within the application. The app supports Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which means users can perform instant bank-to-bank transfers with their friends. Further, one can also transfer money to those who are not the application. Users can also send and receive money through the wallet. Yes Bank is the banking partner enabling Hike to launch UPI and the Wallet.
Similarly, Truecaller has also partnered with ICICI Bank to allow anyone in India to send and receive money securely over their mobile phone. Truecaller aims to power its app ecosystem with the new UPI-based mobile payment service.
Truecaller Pay, which was introduced in Truecaller 8, will allow one to instantly create a UPI ID, send money to any UPI ID or a mobile number registered with the BHIM app. Further, it will also enable users to recharge their mobile number from within the Truecaller app itself. Moreover, any Truecaller user, including non-ICICI Bank customers can link their bank account of any bank (participating in UPI) to create a UPI id and instantly make payments in a safe and secure manner.
In order to access Truecaller Pay, one can simply go to ‘Send money through UPI’ tab on Truecaller app’s profile page. For the security, all the transactions will go through two-factor authentication, as per RBI guidelines. For non-ICICI Bank users, one can transact through Truecaller Pay by creating a new UPI ID.