According to the National Payment Corporation of India(NPCI), Uber and Amazon have recently adopted the unified payment interface (UPI). Besides, the corporation will soon be launching multi-bank UPI partnerships for global players such as Google and Whatsapp soon.
Uber will soon go live this month through integration with the BHIM app. Since about 60% of these cab drivers still get paid in cash by customers, UPI payments will help Uber’s drivers make their payments to Uber using UPI. Besides, Ola had already integrated UPI on its platform in April this year.
Amazon is discussing the launch of UPI with a few banks. It will not be launching its own app despite it will be using UPI on its portal for payment. Google is also ready to launch UPI payments in the next two to three month. RBI will be monitoring the security aspects before giving approval.
NPCI will introduce multi-bank utility for UPI for the first time with the entry of these global giants. So far, private players have been partnering with single banks to offer UPI payments. Hota, NPCI’s CEO said, “There are big players and such large volumes going through one bank will not be good. Multi-bank will drive competition between banks as well”.
WhatsApp and Facebook are also looking to launch with UPI in India but they are still in the discussion phase. Adoption of UPI by these global companies, which have a wide customer base in India, will help boost UPI acceptance. UPI’s monthly transactions crossed the one-crore mark in June, as more banks and private companies are starting to adopt the payment system.