NPCI Reverses Stance On PhonePe-ICICI Debacle, Asks To Facilitate Interoperability

The battle between PhonePe and ICICI is getting hotter by the day. According to ET, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has now ordered Flipkart’s mobile wallet and UPI platform PhonePe to facilitate full interoperability on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Earlier this month, ICICI customers were not been able to facilitate payments via PhonePe. About 6,000 transactions originating from PhonePe, that uses the YES Bank handle, were blocked by ICICI Bank.

Later PhonePe alleged that the payments were blocked wrongfully over ‘restrictive practices’ and ‘security concerns.’

On Thursday, the NPCI intervened in the matter, gave PhonePe a clean chit and asked ICICI Bank to open UPI transactions immediately.

At that time, an ICICI spokesperson said that the PhonePe services will be reinstated only after it allows interoperability. The statement read, “The NPCI has assured us in writing that this will get corrected very soon and the concerned app will allow interoperability. As soon as this is corrected, ICICI Bank will start allowing UPI transactions to resume on this app.”

Later a statement was issued by the NPCI saying that PhonePe does not follow the rules of interoperability as it forces customers to make payments only through the YES Bank handle.

[This development was reported by ET.]