The true-blood Indian online payments platform UPI has an updated version now, the UPI 2.0. The new version was officially released to the public and the media at an event held in Mumbai, which was attended by bigwigs of the country’s banking industry. Those present included the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Urjit Patel, SBI Chief Rajnish Kumar and a galaxy of Chairmen and CEOs of public and private banks, apart from organisers of the National Payments Corporation of India.
If you wish to know what’s new in UPI 2.0, here are the details:
Go beyond just savings and current Accounts: Users of the UPI interface for making payments using their mobile phones, can now make transfers from their overdraft accounts as well. The existing facility permits only savings and current accounts to be linked to UPI. Your bank will now permit your overdraft account to be linked to the mobile app you have downloaded and make payments from it.
Fix the time for payment in advance: Similar to the feature in scheduling your future payments through banks’ websites, now the UPI payments route will also allow you to make a payment in advance and fix the date when the amount is to be transferred. The amount will be debited from your account only on the date you have set for the payment.
Take a look at the invoice in advance: This is an essential requirement. If a merchant is sending you an invoice for payment, in the updated version of UPI 2.0, you get to see the invoice in advance via your email inbox. This enables you to check if the correct merchant has sent you the invoice and the item has been ordered by you. You can then make the fund transfer to his/ her account.
Security Layer in QR: The QR code scanning is another area where the latest version of UPI has added an additional security layer by sending the user a confirmation on whether the merchant establishment is indeed a verified one with the UPI channel or not. This would help in escaping any possible skimming operation by someone intending to cheat the user.
There are many banks already signed up for the UPI service and others are likely to join in. The ones already handling the business are SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, RBL Bank, YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank and HSBC.
For the record, the overall value of transactions done through the UPI interface is Rs 45,845 crore from 235 million transactions in July 2018 alone.