Facebook-owned cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp has recently announced that it is all set to launch its payments feature in India by the end of May. Reportedly, it has tied-up with three private-sector banks, namely Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank, to roll out its product. However, State Bank of India is not ready to take this service live in the first phase, claim reports.
According to reliable sources, all four banks were in process on integrating with WhatsApp, while the messaging app started testing its beta version with ICICI Bank.
As per a statement, a WhatsApp spokesperson said that they are constantly working with the government to deliver access to payments feature to all of its users. Payments on WhatsApp would significantly accelerate digital transactions in India, especially in the current Covid-19 crisis.
Currently, both WhatsApp Pay and SBI are closely working on the integration testing phase. According to a SBI spokesperson, there are some remarkable notes of the CERT-In Audit report issued by WhatsApp Pay which could require time to comply with fully.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had requested UPI third-party platforms to shift into a multi-party model to prevent transactions from clogging any particular bank's systems as well as to maintain high success rates. Apart from WhatsApp pay, Google Pay also has a working relationship with the four banks.
Earlier in 2018, WhatsApp had initiated limited testing of its payments features after bagging an approval from the NPCI, but remained in the restricted testing stage for the last two years as the company struggled with multiple regulatory and legal hurdles. One of the greatest struggles for WhatsApp pay has been conforming to RBI’s data localization guidelines published in April 2018.
However, it is diligently working on complying with the data localization norms and is expected to roll out the payments feature by the end of May.
Source Credit: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/whatsapp-payments-on-track-to-go-live-by-may-end-sans-state-bank-of-india-5219941.html