WhatsApp builds payments data system for local storage

Payment service, in pilot mode, to expand countrywide Ahead of the October 15 deadline to comply with RBI’s data localisation norms, Facebook-owned Whatsapp said it had built a system in India to store payments related data locally. “In response to India’s payments data circular, we’ve built a system that stores payments-related data locally in India,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in April this year, had directed payment system operators to store all data, including full end-to-end transaction details and information collected, within India. The service providers were given six months till October 15 to comply. WhatsApp, which began piloting its payments service in India earlier this year, said almost one million people in the country were “testing WhatsApp payments to send money to each other in a simple and secure way.” Financial inclusion goal The spokesperson added that the company hoped to expand the feature to the whole of India soon “so we can contribute to the country’s financial inclusion goals.” Domestic payment services providers such as Paytm have welcomed the RBI move, while most global players and industry experts have opposed it. Earlier, in a meeting with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is learnt to have sought two more months to comply with the RBI guidelines while agreeing to comply with all Indian regulations. However, a Google spokesperson did not confirm the development and said, “We maintain that cross border data flows today are ubiquitous and an essential phenomenon for global economic activity and universal access to information.” On Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had met RBI Deputy Governor B.P. Kanungo to discuss the data localisation norms. The meeting was also attended by Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar and IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney.

Source  :  https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/whatsapp-builds-payments-data-system-for-local-storage/article25173675.ece

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