Payments technology platform Juspay said that it will help Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and wallet players to comply with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) interoperability norms ahead of the March 31 deadline.
RBI had mandated that all Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) like wallets must be interoperable with UPI as well as card networks by the deadline. Interoperability for wallets will essentially mean that customers can transfer money not just between different wallets but can also link it to their UPI accounts.
Juspay's product named OpenPPI will allow existing and prospective PPI players to comply with the new regulation and will enable interoperability through UPI for PPIs.
Juspay Co-Founder & COO Sheetal Lalwani, said "Implementing PPI interoperability is a game-changer to increase the adoption of UPI and PPIs. Interoperability essentially means that your wallet can now act as your bank account enabling you to transfer money from wallets or cards seamlessly."
Juspay provides UPI technology for banks like Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank. It is also the UPI provider for merchants such as Amazon, Google, CRED, Bajaj, Ola, Swiggy, among others.
While the company did not name the customers, Shan MS, the Chief Growth Officer of Juspay, told Moneycontrol that 10 of their customers are currently in various stages of implementation.
Lalwani added, "It (interoperability) opens up multiple possibilities for wallet usage - a person can now scan any UPI QR code and pay with their Wallet balance instead of using their bank account through UPI. "
According to estimates by Jefferies, wallets will account for 1.34 percent of overall retail digital payments in India in FY22. Of the total $2.16 trillion of volumes estimated by Jefferies for the financial year, wallets are likely to amount to $29 billion.
UPI, on the other hand, is estimated to cross $1 trillion in overall volumes for FY22, making up 50 percent of India's retail digital payments.
Interoperability is seen as a positive move for wallets as people will now be able to use wallets for multiple payments by directly linking them to UPI. It also solves the problem of money lying idle in wallets because only certain merchants may accept payments from specific wallets.
One of the latest fintechs to join the PPI bandwagon was CRED. The fintech secured the PPI license through its acquisition of liquor delivery startup HipBar in 2021.
In December 2021, Jupay had become Softbank's second fintech investment in India after Paytm. The fintech had raised $60 million in a Series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from existing investors VEF and Wellington Management.
The company’s other products include Juspay Safe - a payment browser that simplifies payment authentication, HyperSDK – a payments software development kit (SDK) distribution installed across 250 million mobile phones, and Express Checkout – a platform built to boost transaction success rates.
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