RBI Approves UPI Apps For Instant Digital Payments

The ecommerce example can now be extended to paying for movie tickets, shopping groceries from your neighbourhood store, paying for your dinner at the roadside dhaba, purchasing railways/airline/bus tickets, paying insurance premium, depositing school fees and even giving charity.

A unique identifier, which can be your mobile number or a virtual address like xxx@unionbank.com ormobilenumber@unionbank.com (if you are using Union Bank's UPI app, for example) is all you need to make or accept payments from any Indian citizen.

UPI will work 24*7, 7 days a week and 365 days a year; and the notification of the payment or any error would be instantly delivered. Peer to peer transactions and peer to merchant transactions, from as low as Rs 50 to as high as Rs 1,00,000 can be done using UPI apps.

In a letter sent to bank officials on Wednesday night, departing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan allowed them to launch their respective apps on Google Play Store. Users of iPhone need to wait for 4-6 months for getting their UPI apps.

As per reports coming in, the following banks have either already launched their apps or they are in the process of launching them within few days:

• Axis Bank
• Andhra Bank
• Bank of Maharashtra
• Bhartiya Mahila Bank
• DCB Bank
• Canara Bank
• Catholic Syrian Bank
• Federal Bank
• ICICI Bank
• Oriental Bank of Commerce
• Karnataka Bank
• UCO Bank
• Union Bank of India
• United Bank of India
• Punjab National Bank
• South Indian Bank
• Vijaya Bank
• Yes Bank
• TJSB Sahakari Bank Ltd.

RBL and IDBI Bank customers have been allowed to link their bank accounts to any UPI based app, and transact their payments easily.

ICICI Bank will upgrade their existing iMobile app and Pockets App so accommodate UPI based payments. Axis bank will also enable UPI on their existing apps.

HDFC, SBI and Kotak Mahindra Bank will launch their separate UPI apps in the next 2-3 weeks.

Banks React Positively

As we checked Google Playstore, we found UPI apps from the following banks available for download:

• South Indian Bank
• Bank of Maharashtra
• Punjab National Bank
• Union Bank
• DCB Bank
• Union Bank

Besides, bank officials have reacted positively to the RBI's command of launching their respective apps.