WhatsApp Payments Will Be Made Public Only After Fulfilling all the Parameters: NPCI

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said that the full-scale public launch of the WhatsApp Payments feature will be permitted only after the Facebook-owned platform meets all the required norms. “Currently, NPCI has given its consent to roll out WhatsApp BHIM UPI beta launch with a limited user base of one million and low per transaction limit,” said the corporation which developed the Bharat Interface for Money BHIM – Unified Payments Interface (BHIM UPI).

“Four banks will join the multi-bank BHIM UPI model in phases (in the coming weeks) and full feature product shall be released after the beta test is successful,” the statement added. Popular digital wallet platform Paytm on Thursday accused WhatsApp of flouting norms laid out by the NPCI and demanded a level-playing field for all UPI-based apps.

According to Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm, WhatsApp has custom-implemented the UPI system which is not secure. “Our objection to WhatsApp’s UPI payments system is not about competition, but fair play. The company has custom-implemented UPI to affect the platform’s core principle of inter-operability,” Abbot said in a statement.