Paytm Payments Bank, a unit of One97 Communications Ltd, is set to launch UPI-based payments service for its customers, the payments bank said on Tuesday.
UPI, or universal payments interface is a government-managed framework that allows third-party apps and platforms to build peer-to-peer cashless payment networks over it.
Paytm Payments Bank said it will allow its customers to create a unique UPI account though which they can send and receive money. Through the new IDs, merchants will also be able to accept payments over UPI.
According to Livemint, Paytm Payments Bank chief executive Renu Satti said in a statement that the company will soon enable seamless creation of UPI IDs on their platform so that users can send and receive money to each other, and for merchant payments.
The payments bank, rolled out on 23 May after having received an investment of Rs2.2 billion from its parent company, competes with Airtel Payments Bank Ltd and India Post Payments Bank Ltd.
Its move over to UPI comes amid the growing popularity of UPI payments framework. Total funds transacted over UPI grew to $359 million in March from a mere $15 million in November 2016, when the government pulled out high value currency from circulation, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India.
In December, the government launched Bharat Interface for Money, or BHIM app, which has since been downloaded over 20 million times and accounts for nearly 40percent of all UPI transactions. It launched another UPI-based app Aadhar Pay targeted at merchants in April.
As of today, the UPI ecosystem includes almost all major public and private banks and payment gateways such as BillDesk, Razorpay, CCAvenue, PayU Money and Citrus Pay that support UPI.
Flipkart-owned PhonePe is widely considered to be the second most popular UPI after BHIM. The company said it crossed 10 million users in January.
