Brazil Setback Not To Deter WhatsApp To Launch The Payment Service In India; All You Need To Know

The company's payment service WhatsApp Pay in India has been on an experiment-basis for a couple of years now, but yet to get a complete clearance to roll out the service.

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New Delhi: As the digital messenger service WhatsApp’s payment system was suspended in Brazil, the messaging platform said it is committed to launching the service in India. For the messenger platform company, Brazil is the second-largest market but suspended mobile payments service a week after it was rolled out which turned out as the latest setback for Facebook, according to digital publisher TechCrunch. Brazil’s central bank in a statement said the decision was taken to “preserve an adequate competitive environment” in the mobile payments space. Besides, the bank noted it wants a “functioning of a payment system that’s interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open and cheap.” The company’s payment service WhatsApp Pay in India has been on an experiment-basis for a couple of years now, but yet to get a complete clearance to roll out the service, according to the Indian Express. It had launched WhatsApp Pay, based on the UPI system in February 2018, as part of a trial with one million users. The company has a 400 million-odd user base to which it aims to roll out the service. In Brazil, the banks have asked Mastercard and Visa, which are among the payment partners for WhatsApp, to suspend money transfer on the WhatsApp app. It also said that in case of a failure to comply with the order it will subject the payments companies to fines and administrative sanctions. The statement from the company said, “We believe the future of UPI is bright and are excited to provide a channel to bring hundreds of millions of WhatsApp users to India’s national network at a time when offering secure, cashless solutions are more important than ever. We do believe that we can play an enabling role in accelerating financial inclusion on the back of what has been a landmark Made in India innovation.” In an ongoing case in the Supreme Court, WhatsApp had said it was fully compliant with the country’s data localisation requirements as specified by the banking regulator Reserve Bank of India. Also Watch:  Germany accuses China of economic espionage