New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India today said that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been asked to explore the possibility of becoming a third party application provider for continued UPI operations of the Paytm app.
The NPCI may facilitate certification of four or five banks as the payment service provider that are capable of processing high volumes of UPI transactions, the RBI said. The request has been made by One97 Communication Ltd (OCL), which owns the Paytm brand, the RBI said in a statement. “No new users are to be added by the Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) until all existing users are migrated satisfactorily to a new handle,” said the RBI.
“As the Paytm Payments Bank cannot accept further credits into its customer accounts and wallets after March 15 certain additional steps have become necessary to ensure seamless digital payments by UPI customers using Paytm handle operated by the Paytm Payments Bank. Further, there is a need to minimise concentration risk in the UPI system by having multiple payment app providers,'' said a RBI statement.
Migration of UPI handles will only be to such customers and merchants who have a UPI handle ‘@Paytm'. For others who have a UPI address or handle other than ‘@Paytm', no action is required to be taken by them.
Similarly, the Reserve Bank of India has advised customers, whose underlying account/wallet is currently with Paytm Payments Bank, to make alternative arrangement with other banks well before March 15, as already stated by it on February 16.
