Consumers who do not own debit cards may have to wait a little longer to start making Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. The deadline for launching Aadhaar OTP-based UPI on-boarding is likely to be extended further, well-placed sources told FE. At present, banks and other payment system players are expected to prepare their systems for launch by March 15.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had first floated the idea of implementing Aadhaar OTP-based UPI on-boarding in a circular dated September 8, 2021. The idea behind the concept was to further expand the user base of UPI by covering users who do not have debit cards or whose debit cards are inactive. The deadline for complying with the circular was December 15, 2021.
Later, the NPCI extended the deadline to March 15, 2022, citing delay in readiness across the ecosystem.“Anything that the NPCI intends to launch takes nine to 12 months to enable the ecosystem. Therefore, another extension of the timeline by a few months is likely,” one of the people close to the developments said. FE could not immediately ascertain the revised deadline.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the opening up of UPI payments to 400 million feature phone users in India. Christened UPI123pay, the new facility will be accessible through IVR numbers, an app-based functionality, a sound-based format and even through missed calls.
According to its September 8 circular, on-boarding of UPI customers with Aadhaar OTP acting as a second factor of authentication will open up a secure and convenient alternative channel. The NPCI shall connect to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on behalf of the customer’s bank to seek authentication, and validation of Aadhaar OTP will be done as per UIDAI guidelines.
In a separate development, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank on Monday said that it will now enable customers to update their mobile number for their individual banking transactions through a real-time and secured OTP-based authentication, followed by a biometric authentication process.