India’s largest digital payments player Paytm has integrated BHIM Unified Payments Interface (UPI) onto its platform allowing its users to transfer money using the in-app UPI feature.
This move by Paytm now makes its immune to competition it was otherwise facing from UPI-based players. The advantage UPI had over Paytm was being able to transfer money and make payments directly from one’s bank account instead of having to first add money to the wallet.
“We aim to be the country’s largest issuer and acquirer of UPI, and establish the most comprehensive payments system in the country,” Paytm said in its blogpost.
How to use BHIM UPI on Paytm
Users can create a Paytm BHIM UPI ID on the app, which will be their mobile-number@paytm by default. Any savings bank account can be linked with this unique ID.
Paytm merchants too, can link their multiple existing bank accounts with Paytm BHIM UPI ID and accept money in whichever account they wish. As per the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) guidelines, users can send up to Rs 1 lakh a day using BHIM UPI; while there’s no receiving limit.
Paytm BHIM UPI is currently available in beta within the Paytm Android app and will soon be available on iOS as well.
Paytm’s launch of UPI comes at a time when there is significant traction in the digital payments space in India.
Google recently forayed into digital payments in India with the launch of its UPI-based service Tez. WhatsApp too is soon expected to launch its payments service in India
However, speaking to Economic Times, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has said that Paytm has an edge over competition given that it has a significant headroom with over 200 million registered users and has a network of more than 5.5 million merchants.
Another advantage Paytm users will have is that they can create their own UPI handles with Paytm. Paytm already sees around 100 million peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on its platform and with the addition of UPI, whose largest use case is P2P transactions, Paytm expects the number to increase to 200 million per quarter.
Vijay also told ET that the company will invest another Rs 5000 crore in the business over the next three years.