Payments on WhatsApp Rolled Out in India

IN NEWS

• Following the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) nod to WhatsApp, WhatsApp which is owned by Facebook, to roll out its payments service in India.

ABOUT

• WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware, cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) service owned by Facebook, Inc.
• WhatsApp Pay is an in-chat payment feature that allows users to make transactions via WhatsApp to their contact list. It is UPI-based payments service that allows you to both send and receive money. It was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• Users can send money directly through chat by tapping on the share file icon and selecting ‘payment’. The ‘payment’ section is available on the shortcut menu.
• WhatsApp is working with five leading banks in India: ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank. People can send money on WhatsApp to anyone using a UPI-supported app.

NATIONAL PAYMENTS CORPORATION OF INDIA (NPCI)

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an initiative taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Bank’s Association (IBA) to operate the retail payments and settlement systems in India.
• This organization was founded in the year 2008 under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
• NPCI has been incorporated as a ‘not for profit’ company under section 8 of Companies Act 2013.NPCI, during its journey, has made a significant impact on the retail payment systems in the country which are as follows-

• RuPay- RuPay is an indigenously developed Payment System .
• IMPS- Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), India has become the leading country in the world in real time payments in retail sector.
• NACH- National Automated Clearing House (NACH), an offline web based system for bulk push and pull transactions.
• ABPS- Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System is helping the Government and Government agencies in making the Direct Benefit Transfers for various Central as well as State sponsored schemes.
• AePS- Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) .
• NFS- National Financial Switch (NFS) is the largest network of shared Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in India.
• UPI- Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been termed as the revolutionary product in the payment system.
• Bharat Bill Payment System.
• NETC- National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program to meet the electronic tolling requirements of the Indian market.

NPCI International Payments Limited

• NPCI has created a separate subsidiary to take its product to global market. The organization is getting offers from nations around Asia, Africa and Middle East to improve their payment infrastructure. Internationalization of RuPay and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are the primary focus of the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL).