Open up PhonePe App: NPCI tells ICICI Bank

“Based on a review by NPCI on ICICI Bank’s action to block Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions made through PhonePe App, we would like to state that ICICI Bank has been advised to open UPI transactions immediately,” NPCI said in a statement. The corporation, which runs the UPI platform that focuses on interoperability, had discussions with both ICICI Bank and YES Bank, which is the banker for PhonePe before arriving at the decision, it said.

“We have also advised banks to adhere to the merchant on-boarding guidelines meticulously from the angle of interoperability of merchant App so that such disputes are avoided,” it added.

However, ICICI Bank accused the app — without naming it — of following a “restrictive practice” of allowing only users of its own UPI handle to make payments on its App, which, the lender claimed, is a violation of UPI’s guidelines on interoperability.

“NPCI has assured us in writing that this will get corrected very soon and the App concerned will allow interoperability. As soon as this is corrected, ICICI Bank will start allowing UPI transactions to resume on this App,” ICICI Bank said in a statement.

An ICICI Bank spokesperson said: “A certain non-banking application is following a restrictive practice of allowing only users of its own UPI handle to make payments on its App. This is a clear violation of UPI guidelines which mandate interoperability, wherein users enjoy the freedom to choose any UPI handle to make payments.

ICICI Bank was not the first lender which had blocked such applications. India’s largest lender SBI had also blocked money transfers by its account holders to Paytm, Mobikwik and Freecharge. Speaking earlier in the day, YES Bank’s managing director and chief executive Rana Kapoor had termed such behaviour is not “conducive” to the growth of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform and advocated a need to collaborate. Asserting the bank has cornered a 40 per cent market share on the UPI platform, Kapoor termed this as “blips” caused by “one or two banks”.

UPI transactions

* “Based on a review by NPCI on ICICI Bank’s action to block Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions made through PhonePe App, we would like to state that ICICI Bank has been advised to open UPI transactions immediately,” NPCI said in a statement

* India’s largest lender State Bank of India had also blocked money transfers by its account holders to Paytm, Mobikwik and Freecharge