WhatsApp pay gets NPCI nod to expand UPI project to 10 million users

Bengaluru: Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp has received permission from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to expand its pilot United Payment Interface (UPI) services to 10 million users, according to Nandan Nilekani, the architect of unique identity database Aadhaar and UPI.

Nikelani was speaking at an IIT Industry Conclave event on Friday.

WhatsApp’s payment feature, called WhatsApp Pay, is designed to run on UPI — developed by the NPCI — which allows users to pay others or do business transactions through their bank accounts. WhatsApp has been running a pilot for one million users and has struggled to get a full-fledged licence since the rollout of the project in 2018.

On Friday, a media report said that NPCI has allowed WhatsApp to increase that to 10 million customers, citing an unnamed official from the RBI.

NPCI and WhatsApp declined to comment.

WhatsApp has over 400 million users in India, which is its largest market. WhatsApp Pay will compete with Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm.

Nilekani said six countries have asked to study the UPI system.

He said Google has asked the US Federal Reserve to adopt the UPI model that it plans for FedNow, an interbank settlement system.

Recently, Facebook said it expects to roll out WhatsApp Pay in a number of countries, in the next six months. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said commerce and payments are areas that will be important for private social platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger.