WhatsApp raises concerns over delay in payment business approval

Facebook owned messaging platform, WhatsApp, has raised concerns regarding the delay in getting an approval for its payment business proposal in India. RBI, in its response, has asked National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to share their standpoint on the matter.

In response to RBI's letter to the MeitY, a senior official of the ministry said that the concerns it had with WhatsApp Payments have already been raised with NPCI and RBI.

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On April 5, 2018, RBI had said that all payment system operators will have to ensure that data related to payments is stored only in India and firms would have six months to comply with it. WhatsApp was also asked to not store any mirror copies of the data outside of India.

NPCI has also maintained that WhatsApp isn't fully compliant yet. "Right now, they (WhatsApp) are mirroring data in India," Dilip Asbe, CEO of NPCI, said according to the Economic Times, adding that he cannot comment any further on the issue.

Earlier, WhatsApp's global CEO Chris Daniels had written to the Reserve Bank seeking permission for a full-scale rollout of the feature.

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"I write to request your formal approval to immediately expand WhatsApp's BHIM UPI (Unified Payments Interface) compliant payments product to all users in India, giving us the opportunity to offer a useful and secure service that can improve the lives of Indian people through digital empowerment and financial inclusion," Daniels had said in the letter addressed to the RBI Governor.

WhatsApp's payment service has been in beta testing for almost a year now. However, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma had earlier this year alleged that WhatsApp's UPI payment platform has security risks for consumers and is not in compliance with the guidelines.

Edited By: Udit Verma

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