NPCI let WhatsApp go live on UPI after full compliance, RBI to SC

New Delhi, The Reserve Bank of India has told the Supreme Court that the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) allowed WhatsApp to “go live” on UPI only after ensuring it was fully compliant with its circular.

The central bank also stressed the onus is on the NPCI to respond on the status of compliance of WhatsApp, Google and Amazon with the system rules/procedural guidelines governing the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

In an affidavit, the RBI said: “NPCI is the system provider of UPI and, therefore, comes under the regulatory radar of the RBI. Since it was NPCI that allowed Amazon, Google and WhatsApp to operate under UPI, the responsibility to ensure that these entities comply with all the rules/regulations/guidelines governing UPI lies with the NPCI.”