Biometrics, WhatsApp Payments And More: UPI 2.0 To Be Bigger And Better

Unified payment interface (UPI) is set for a major upgrade almost a year after it was launched as the the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) is planning to release a new set of specifications for payments platform by early July for banks to start incorporating them, the Economic Times has reported.

The news specifications for the UPI, according to sources cited by the daily, include E-mandate, option for biometric payments and bigger transactions.

E-Mandate allows customers sign and authorise debit order transactions online and from any web-enabled device. The e-mandate under UPI 2.0 will have a fully revocable mandate and customers can add, update or delete the mandate anytime as per their choice, the daily said in its report.

"E-mandate shall be a part of UPI 2.0 once it is approved by the Reserve Bank of India, essentially to provide a decentralised e-mandate mechanism" chief operating officer of NPCI Dilip Asbe has said. According to MoneyTap founder Bala Parthasarathy, e-mandate “will reduce the time taken for collection, reduce the costs and also improve the user experience”.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has initiated discussions with Indian banks and other institutions to allow its users to make payments through UPI. Other messaging services and applications, such as Hike and Truecaller, have already implemented UPI based payments. WhatsApp, NPCI and India banks such as the State Bank of India are currently in the ‘proof of concept’ stage. Banks are currently looking at ways the UPI can be integrated with the messaging service, allowing instant settlement of funds between peers.