ICICI Bank launches ‘Unified Payments Interface’ (UPI) for its mobile banking applications
Offers UPI in ‘Pockets’ for use by anyone including non-ICICI Bank customers; Also available on ‘iMobile’ for its mobile banking customers; One can instantly transfer funds to anyone round-the-clock on all days
ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, announced the launch of ‘Unified Payments Interface’ (UPI) on two of its customer facing mobile banking applications – ‘Pockets’ and ‘iMobile’. UPI enables bank account holders (of banks participating in UPI) to send and receive money using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) without entering additional bank account details. UPI is available on ‘iMobile’, the bank’s mobile banking application for its customers and on ‘Pockets’, its digital bank for peer-to-peer and e-commerce payments by users including non-ICICI Bank customers. It is the simplest mode of making payments that aims to provide users with the convenience of completing transactions in lesser steps than earlier, thereby reducing the transaction time. Anyone, including non-ICICI Bank customers can access UPI by creating their VPA on ‘Pockets’.
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “UPI is a path-breaking concept which will enable convenient person-to-person and merchant payments using mobile phones. I believe that it will revolutionise the landscape of electronic payments in India and go a long way in reducing the usage of cash in the economy. It is the first time in the world that a project of such a scale is being introduced to customers. ICICI Bank is delighted to have partnered with NPCI to introduce UPI. We are the largest player on the IMPS and NUUP platforms and have also played a key role in conceptualising this new initiative along with NPCI. We have already received encouraging responses from users including non-ICICI Bank customers on creating their VPA using ‘Pockets’.
For using UPI, both ‘Pockets’ and ‘iMobile’ users need to create their own Virtual Payment Address (VPA; ‘xyz@pockets’ &‘xyz@icici’ respectively ) on one of ICICI Bank’s mobile application. This will link the VPA to the customer’s bank account. The VPA acts as their financial address without having to reveal the 16 digit bank account number and the 11 digit IFSC code. Once registered for VPA, users can send & receive payments instantly from any bank account using their mobile phone instantly in a safe and secure way. They will also be able to make payments to merchants from their mobile phones where UPI is accepted as a payment mode. Users can make payments using UPI 24×7 on all days including bank holidays upto a maximum of Rs 1 lakh. Users on ‘Pockets’ can link their bank accounts with other banks (who are also on UPI) and make payments from that account as well using their VPA on ‘Pockets’.