WhatsApp Pay launch: WhatsApp Pay has been running in India in beta testing for over two years now. The payment method hasn’t been able to launch officially in India due to some roadblocks. It is now reported that the WhatsApp Pay launch will be official in India by May-end. 

Earlier, it was being reported that The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has reportedly granted its permission to WhatsApp to formally start its payments services in India albeit in a phased manner.

A report by Money Control citing two bankers who were aware of WhatsApp’s next move, claims that the WhatsApp Pay will go live in India by the end of May. The Facebook-owned messaging app has collaborated with three top banks including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank. The report states that the State Bank Of India is not ready to roll out the product in the first phase.

The report also adds that WhatsApp is complying to the Reserve Bank of India’s data localization norms, which has been the major reason behind the launch delay. WhatsApp is however said to launch its payment service in a phased manner so as to help banks deal with a load of transactions. WhatsApp has 400 million users in India which is its biggest market globally.

“We are continuing to work with the government so that we can provide access to payments on WhatsApp to all of our users. Payments on WhatsApp will help accelerate digital payments and this is particularly important during Covid as it is a safer way to transact for our 400 million users in India,” MoneyConytrol quoted a WhatsApp spokesperson as saying.

“Currently, both SBI and WhatsApp Pay are working closely through the integration testing phase. We are given to understand that there are some outstanding observations of CERT-In Audit report submitted by WhatsApp Pay for which they seem to have sought time till May 31, 2020, to comply with us fully,” he added

WhatsApp Pay is expected to be a huge success for the company considering the number of users in India, and the ease of use since users don’t have to download another app. WhatsApp Pay while boosting the country’s digital payments market will also give stiff competition to existing players like Google Pay and Paytm.