A day after the National Payments Corporation of India gave its nod, people across India will now be able to send money through WhatsApp. The service will, however, have to comply with the National Payments Corporation of India other directive on Thursday imposing a cap of 30% on the number of UPI transactions that can be processed by third party apps like WhatsApp Payments, Google Pay, PhonePe and others.
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In a statement, the company said: "WhatsApp designed our payments feature in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India using the Unified Payment Interface, an India-first, real-time payment system that enables transactions with over 160 supported banks. We are excited to join India's campaign to increase the ease and use of digital payments, which is helping expand financial inclusion in India." The company added, "Just like every feature in WhatsApp, payments is designed with a strong set of security and privacy principles, including entering a personal UPI PIN for each payment."
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To send money on WhatsApp in India, it's necessary to have a bank account and debit card in India. WhatsApp said it is working with 140 banks in India like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank. WhatsApp sends instructions to banks, also known as payment service providers, that initiate the transfer of money via UPI between sender and receiver bank accounts. People can send money on WhatsApp to anyone using a UPI-supported app.
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In his remarks, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg anncounced that "Payments is available now in 10 Indian regional language versions of WhatsApp. India is the first country to do anything like this. I am glad we were able to support this effort and work together to help achieve a more digital India. I want to thank all our partners who have made this possible."
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WhatsApp will initially begin scaling up the service with a maximum of 20 million users. Payments on WhatsApp is now available for people on the latest version of the iPhone and Android app.
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