WhatsApp Pay to Launch in India by May end

WhatsApp Pay is set to go live as early as by the end of the month. The payments service by the instant messaging app, which is currently under beta testing, is said to be launched initially in partnership with three private banks, namely Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank, while public sector State Bank of India (SBI) will join at a later stage. At present, WhatsApp Pay allows transactions based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) via ICICI Bank.

"We are continuing to work with the government so that we can provide access to payments on WhatsApp to all of our users. Payments on WhatsApp will help accelerate digital payments and this is particularly important during Covid as it is a safer way to transact for our 400 million users in India," report quoted.

"Currently, both SBI and WhatsApp Pay are working closely through the integration testing phase. We are given to understand that there are some outstanding observations of CERT-In Audit report submitted by WhatsApp Pay for which they seem to have sought time till May 31, 2020, to comply with us fully," report added.

In 2018, the Facebook-backed messaging app first announced that they will roll out WhatsApp Pay for over one million users in India as part of beta testing. However, the formal launch couldn't take place because of the delay in approval by the NPCI. The government and the RBI were apprehensive of granting the permission to WhatsApp initially due to some of its features and vulnerabilities that were discovered in WhatsApp recently.