The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has lifted the user onboarding cap for WhatsApp Pay, allowing the platform to offer UPI services to its entire user base in India.
"With this development, WhatsApp Pay can now extend UPI services to its entire user base in
India. Previously, NPCI had permitted WhatsApp Pay to expand its UPI user base in a phased manner," NPCI said in a statement on December 31.
NPCI, which governs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) framework in India, initially imposed user onboarding limits on payment services like WhatsApp Pay to ensure a gradual and phased rollout. This was mainly to monitor scalability, performance, and security concerns in the highly sensitive payments ecosystem.
When WhatsApp Pay launched, it was capped at onboarding only a small percentage of UPI users. This cautious approach aimed to mitigate risks associated with adding a large user base all at once and to allow WhatsApp to fine-tune its operations. Gradually, NPCI raised the limit in phases. In November 2022, WhatsApp Pay’s cap was increased to 100 million users.
Removing the onboarding limit entirely marks a significant milestone, sources told Moneycontrol. For WhatsApp, this unlocks the potential to expand its payments feature to its massive existing user base in India, which exceeds 500 million users.
"We're committed to making payments on WhatsApp simple, reliable, and secure. Our goal is to add value and convenience to users' lives through various use-cases like bill payments, ticket booking, and shopping. We aim to accelerate digital payments and UPI adoption and continue contributing to India's digital and financial inclusion agenda," a WhatsApp Spokesperson said.
The development comes as NPCI has also extended the market cap deadline by another two years.
"Considering various factors, the timeline for compliance of existing TPAPs who are exceeding
the volume cap, is extended by two years i.e. til December 31, 2026," the RBI said in a circular on December 31.
According to the NPCI rule issued in early 2021, no single UPI app should have more than 30 percent of the UPI payments market.
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