Whatsapp Banking

The launch of the money transfer feature was first announced by Whatsapp, with a few leading individuals citing regulatory concerns. Subsequently, the National Payments Corporation Of India, the parent body of UPI, issued a statement that allowed a limited launch of beta testing, subject to terms and conditions. The beta launch for starters would only be available to a million users and they would be required to test the latest version of the messenger application to test the functionality. The NPCI also restricted the number of banks participating in the beta test to only four- State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

The Competitors in the Payment Space

Signing up for the Whatsapp UPI Payments Service

The next step involves the verification of account information entered in the previous step by sending an SMS. This ensures that the number used for Whatsapp is the same as that of your chosen bank account. If the verification by SMS fails, the user will not be able to use the Whatsapp UPI functionality. If the user has more than one bank account linked to the same number, the selected account will show up along with others as a list of pending UPI OTP verification.

Once the verification is completed , the user will see the UPI setup screen that confirms that the account has been linked to the Whatsapp Pay platform. The above steps can be repeated to add multiple bank accounts.

Making a Whatsapp UPI Payment

After adding one or more bank accounts, the users can send money using the chat-based payment functionality. Also, an additional factor to consider is that there is no separate UPI payment gateway and the person receiving the payment also needs to register his/her bank account through the app. When both the sender and the receiver are registered with Whatsapp Pay, the sender can simply send money through a chat window which is similar to sending a message. Another unique feature is that a sender can easily send to multiple receivers through a group chat if all members of the group are registered.

Also Read: All Mobile Banking Services

The users need to complete the following steps to make a UPI Whatsapp payment:

Step 1: The user needs to open a chat window similar to sending a message.

Step 2: The user then needs to click on the Attach/Add (+) button to view the different options. If the account is linked with the payments system, an option named “Payments' ' would also be shown along with the regular options like document, camera, gallery, location and contact.

Step 3: On selecting the “Payments” option, the user gets directed to a page where he/she can enter the amount to be sent to the recipient. The user can also add a message along with the amount.

Step 4: The user needs to authorize the payment by entering the UPI PIN of the bank account from which such an amount is to be sent.

Step 5: When the payment is complete, the message along with the amount sent will show up as a conversation between the sender and the recipient

The user also has an option of getting a transaction log which consists of details of all money sent and received from the app. This option can be accessed from the history option in the settings menu.

FAQS of whatsapp Banking