WhatsApp’s payment initiative still on hold

Reserve Bank of India has issued a statement that WhatsApp’s full payment functionality will not be permitted to be set into action yet.

“Reserve Bank had examined the said reports and the responses of the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and was concerned that WhatsApp was storing some payment data elements outside India beyond the permitted timelines indicated in the circular and the Frequently Asked Questions on ‘Storage of Payment System Data’ issued by RBI on June 26, 2019,” read the statement issued by RBI.

But WhatsApp said that they have cleared it by having an independent third-party auditor certified by the Central government’s cybersecurity firm to prove that WhatsApp’s data localization is set up in accordance with payments.

WhatsApp maintains a huge market in India with 400 million users and so they have planned to introduce their new option here first. If launched, they will be competing with other apps like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and so on. On that note, NCPI (National Payments Corporation of India) has confirmed that WhatsApp complies with the data localization norms and also announced that if the companies exceed their threshold percentage of payments, they will be penalized and asked to stop taking more customers.