ICICI to resume UPI transactions on PhonPe

With the government’s push to digital economy, a number of payment gateways have sprung up leading to customers spoilt with choices. However, the government’s darling has been the UPI or Unified Payment Interface platform. With minimal checks and other requirements, it is a seamless process of paying/transferring money. However, it has come with its own problems. On 13th January, ICICI Bank blocked transactions through PhonePe, Flipkart’s payment gateway, citing security concerns, and said PhonePe was allowing users of only Yes Bank’s UPI handle to make payments on its app. PhonePe has partnered with Yes Bank to offer UPI payments since presently only banks have access to the UPI infrastructure.

However, the bank resumed the transactions on the application now after it adhered with the guidelines. A spokesperson from ICICI said that “”The merchant has now adhered to the NPCI guidelines on interoperability by making the necessary corrections in its App. Hence we have now started allowing UPI transactions on this App.”

ICICI Bank had cited “security related concerns about the access to UPI data to a non-banking application.” It also accused PhonePe of following “restrictive practices by allowing users to make payments with only its UPI handle, in contravention to the UPI guidelines of interoperability to choose any app to make payments through UPI.”