WhatsApp Payments Feature Gets Green Signal to Launch in India

WhatsApp has received approval to go live on Unified Payment Interface in the multi-bank model.

After two years of testing, WhatsApp payment service on Thursday, 5 November, received approval from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to go live on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in the multi-bank model.

WhatsApp can expand its UPI user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of 20 million in UPI, NPCI said.

The Facebook-owned private messaging service has over 400 million users in India.

The move comes after NPCI in August had informed the Reserve Bank of India that WhatsApp had met data localisation requirements.

Brazil became the first country to roll out WhatsApp payment service in June.

In India, the WhatsApp payment service will compete against other major players like Google Pay and PhonePe, among others.