WhatsApp Pay Receives NPCI Approval For India Launch: Report

According to a news report, Facebook Inc has received permission on Thursday from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch WhatsApp Pay services in India.

"The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted WhatsApp permission to operate its digital payment service in a phased manner," said an unnamed RBI executive to Business Standard on Friday.

NPCI's approval comes after permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the report said.

WhatsApp has assured that it shall comply with the data localisation norms, an aspect that has delayed the launch of the payments service for two years.

WhatsApp Pay will be offered to 10 million users in India in its first phase of launch in the country, the report said. It was first introduced in February 2018, as part of its trial run in India, in partnership with ICICI Bank, but failed to rollout due to regulatory blocks.

While the delay in launch may have put WhatsApp at a disadvantage to the already established UPI customer base, its complete rollout could potentially make it the largest UPI services provider, considering its active user base for the instant messaging platform.

It will be competing with the existing major players like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe and Amazon Pay.