National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Friday asked UPI service providers and online merchants to fulfil certain conditions to boost interoperability in the payments ecosystem.
In a circular, NPCI asked them to display the UPI option for customers prominently, especially for online transactions, and set the deadline to complete the task by September 30, 2023.
Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, has become India's most popular digital payment mode. The government wants it to penetrate every nook and corner of the country to ensure every citizen enjoys its benefits. It allows easy transactions through the UPI app or UPI QR code.
NPCI has asked UPI applications to include the text: 'Send Money to any UPI App' or 'Scan any UPI QR' and display the UPI and app logo prominently on QR scan screens within the apps. The text should also be included in all customer and merchant communications and adverts.
It asked UPI merchants to ensure that UPI as a payment option should be clearly and prominently visible 'over and above' any individual UPI app for merchant payments, especially for online transactions. To ensure this, mobile website-based merchants should have the 'Pay by any UPI app' button as the 'first and prominent' option in the section where a customer chooses UPI as the preferred mode of payment. Furthermore, when a customer selects this option, all the active UPI apps without any discrimination should be displayed, and a generic flow to all these applications should also be ensured.
"The deep/direct integrations, if any, shall only be permitted to appear after the 'Pay by any UPI app' option," the circular reads.
NPCI further asked the desktop/laptop web-based merchants to use a dynamic QR code instead of a static QR code before September 30, 2023.
"The collect option is not user-friendly and should be transitioned to a 'Dynamic QR' code. This will reduce errors and improve customer experience," the circular stated. All the compliances for mobile website-based web merchants also apply to desktop/laptop web-based merchants.
NPCI is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India under the initiative of RBI. It aims to create a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in India.
