The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has an important message for third-party UPI apps like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe etc. and others. In a circular issued recently, NPCI has asked third-party apps and banks to deactivate the UPIIDs and numbers that have been inactive for more than a year. For those unaware, NPCI is the non-profit organization that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India.
As per the circular, the decision has been taken to prevent the inadvertent transfer of money to unintended recipients in case customers change their mobile number without delinking their old number from the banking system, NPCI stated. There exists a possibility where the old mobile number can be issued to a new issuer. Recently, the Supreme Court has said that mobile phone service providers cannot be barred from reallocating deactivated/disconnected numbers to new subscribers after expiry of the statutory 90-day period.
As per the new guidelines in the circular, the following must be done by the Third Party App Provider (TPAP) and Payment Service Providers (PSP) and implement the same by December 31, 2023.
* All TPAPs and PSP banks have been asked to identify UPI IDs and associated UPI numbers and phone numbers of the customers who have not performed any financial (debit or credit) or non-financial transactions for 1 year from the UPI apps.
* UPI IDs and UPI numbers of such customers shall be disabled for inward credit transactions. This means that they will not be able to receive money on these numbers. Further, PSPs shall deregister the same phone number from the UPI as well.
* Customers with inward credit on UPI IDs and phone numbers blocked shall re-register in their UPI apps for UPI mapper linkage. Costumes can make payments, and non-financial transactions using UPI Pin as needed.
* UPI apps shall perform Requester Validation (ReqValAd) before initiating ‘Pay-to-contact’ and ‘pay to mobile number’. UPI apps shall show the customer name which has been fetched before initiating the transaction and shall not display the name which has been stored at the app’s end.
As per the NPCI circular, “In the realm of digital payments, it is essential for customers to regularly review and verify their information within the banking system to ensure a safe and secure transactional experience. However, it has come to our attention that customers may change to a new mobile number without disassociating the previous number from the banking system.”
As per the circular, the decision has been taken to prevent the inadvertent transfer of money to unintended recipients in case customers change their mobile number without delinking their old number from the banking system, NPCI stated. There exists a possibility where the old mobile number can be issued to a new issuer. Recently, the Supreme Court has said that mobile phone service providers cannot be barred from reallocating deactivated/disconnected numbers to new subscribers after expiry of the statutory 90-day period.
As per the new guidelines in the circular, the following must be done by the Third Party App Provider (TPAP) and Payment Service Providers (PSP) and implement the same by December 31, 2023.
* All TPAPs and PSP banks have been asked to identify UPI IDs and associated UPI numbers and phone numbers of the customers who have not performed any financial (debit or credit) or non-financial transactions for 1 year from the UPI apps.
* UPI IDs and UPI numbers of such customers shall be disabled for inward credit transactions. This means that they will not be able to receive money on these numbers. Further, PSPs shall deregister the same phone number from the UPI as well.
* Customers with inward credit on UPI IDs and phone numbers blocked shall re-register in their UPI apps for UPI mapper linkage. Costumes can make payments, and non-financial transactions using UPI Pin as needed.
* UPI apps shall perform Requester Validation (ReqValAd) before initiating ‘Pay-to-contact’ and ‘pay to mobile number’. UPI apps shall show the customer name which has been fetched before initiating the transaction and shall not display the name which has been stored at the app’s end.
As per the NPCI circular, “In the realm of digital payments, it is essential for customers to regularly review and verify their information within the banking system to ensure a safe and secure transactional experience. However, it has come to our attention that customers may change to a new mobile number without disassociating the previous number from the banking system.”