WhatsApp Payments Bank to go live by May-end

New Delhi : Instant messaging application Whatsapp is all set to go live with their Payments Bank offering in India by the end of this month.

While three private sector lenders - ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank - are ready to roll out the product, State Bank of India is not going to go live in the first phase, they added.

"We are continuing to work with the government so that we can provide access to payments on WhatsApp to all of our users. Payments on WhatsApp will help accelerate digital payments and this is particularly important during Covid as it is a safer way to transact for our 400 million users in India," WhatsApp spokesperson told Moneycontrol.

"Currently, both SBI and Whtsapp Pay are working closely through the integration testing phase."

As we make available more and more convenience to our customers we are also mindful of the robust security architecture that's required to be put in place and compliant with regulatory guidelines as well.

"Bankers in the know of the matter pointed out that the public sector lender could have slowed down on its integrations with WhatsApp because of the delay in getting operational clearances from the central bank," said an SBI spokesperson.

Interestingly, Google Pay also operates with the above four mentioned banks in the Indian markets.