WhatsApp Pay to launch in India, Facebook gets NPCI nod: Report

Facebook has managed to get a nod from the National Payments Corporation of India for launching WhatsApp Pay in India. The company has been trying to bring its payments feature to India for two years.

WhatsApp Pay will be rolled out in a phased manner, reported Business Standard. “The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted WhatsApp a licence to operate its digital payment service in a phased manner,” a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive told the publication.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The company has been granted permissions by the NPCI following its assurance to comply with the local data regulation norms. The first phase of the rollout will offer WhatsApp payment services to over 10 million users. “Pending other compliance points, the messaging platform will be able to do a full rollout,” the source said.

A complete rollout would potentially make WhatsApp the biggest UPI payments service provider in India. WhatsApp Pay will compete against Google Pay, PayTM, Amazon Pay, PhonePe, etc. However, the biggest advantage for WhatsApp would be its already-established active user base of over 400 million users in India.

Initially, Facebook brought WhatsApp Pay to India on a trial basis in February 2018. The company partnered with ICICI Bank for the trial run and made WhatsApp Pay available for select users. However, back then, the US-based social media giant did not get permission from various regulators for the wider rollout.