Whatsapp Says Yes To Local Data Storage; Whatsapp Payment Will Work With ICICI, SBI, HDFC Banks

By Mohul Ghosh Last updated Jun 27, 2019

Whatsapp Payments will store data locally

Whatsapp has agreed to store data locally, and this means that Whatsapp Payments is now coming sooner than we expected.

As per new reports coming in, Whatsapp Payments will work with ICICI Bank, SBI, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, and UPI will be the backbone of this payment mechanism.

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Whatsapp Will Store Data Locally

The biggest hurdle which Facebook-owned Whatsapp faced regarding their new payments interface was the RBI rule regarding storage of data.

From day 1, RBI and Govt. of India have been adamant on local data storage.

Now, Whatapp has said yes to this condition, and this means that all decks are now cleared regarding the launch of Whatsapp payments in India.

An unnamed source from Whatsapp said, “WhatsApp has completed the necessary work on data localization and has moved to the audit process. Once the auditors submit the report to the regulator, the company can go live with its payments application,”

The audit will be done by a team authorized by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-IN, and the audit report will be sent to RBI.

How Will This Work?

Whatsapp Payments will work on the backbone of UPI, and NPCI has already approved them (which was questioned later)

A beta testing is being done in association with ICICI Bank currently.

Once the full-fledged services are on, Whatsapp Payments will start working with other banks such as SBI, HDFC and Axis Bank.

RBI’s Tough Stand: All Data Has To Be Stored In India

In a recent notification to all financial firms, and companies associated with online payments, RBI has said that the data related with Indians should be sent back to India within 24 hours of the transaction.

This data set should include details like

Name of the customer

Customer’s mobile number

Aadhaar number

PAN number

Customer and beneficiary account details

Payment credentials such as OTP, PIN, Passwords, and more.

How Will Paytm React Now?

Paytm has been a staunch critic of Whatsapp payments, and their founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has described their upcoming payment services as a security risk.

Whatsapp is the most used social media messenger app in India, and once their payments services is launched, they can be Paytm’s biggest competitor.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.