WhatsApp Pay partners with SBI, HDFC, Axis and ICICI Bank

A month after WhatsApp Pay received the NPCI nod to go live in India, the company has partnered with the State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank to operate its UPI-based payments app.

The announcement was made on the second day of the India-focused Facebook Fuel virtual event. 

The partnership is expected to boost the payments app’s current user base of 20 million. SBI alone serves over 45 crore customers. With over 120 million UPI users, the bank commands a 28% market share as a remitter bank, the highest in the UPI ecosystem. 

According to a Redseer Consulting report, mobile payments currently stands at Rs 25 trillion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 58% to reach Rs 245 trillion by financial year 2024-25.

“We’re excited and privileged to partner with SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank to bring simple and secure digital payments to WhatsApp users across India. UPI is a transformative service and we jointly have the opportunity to bring the benefits of our digital economy and financial inclusion to a large number of users who have not had full access to them before,” Abhijit Bose, head of WhatsApp India, said in a statement.

Bijith Bhaskar, head of digital channels and partnership, ICICI Bank, added, “Banking on WhatsApp offers immense convenience to our customers as it allows them to bank seamlessly while they are on WhatsApp. Keeping the convenience in mind, we introduced banking services on WhatsApp in April. Over two million users have adopted banking services on WhatsApp in this short span.” 

Meanwhile, banks have been aggressively pushing their own wallets with cashbacks and other offers to attract customers. Government-operated postal services provider India Post entered the turf with the launch of DakPay.