WhatsApp in plans to integrate UPI-based money transaction system

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp is in talks with State Bank of India (SBI), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and other institutions to integrate peer-to-peer payment system in the app, reported Economic Times.

The system will reportedly function on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), run by NPCI. Introduced by former governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan in 2016, UPI allows settle funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.

In order to do so, banks require merging their systems with WhatsApp. The move will then allow WhatsApp to identify the recipient and funds to get settled between two parties within the app. According to the report, banks are at the ‘proof of concept’ stage to integrate the system on the platform. However, if WhatsApp gets successful in integrating UPI on its platform, it won’t be the messaging app to do so in India.

Other messaging app, Hike has already launched its own mobile payment service Hike Wallet, allowing instant money transfer among its clients and fund transfer to banks using the government-backed United Payments Interface (UPI) system.