ICICI launches UPI for banking transactions

31 August, New Delhi

Leading private sector lender ICICI bank today announced the launch of ‘Unified Payments Interface’ (UPI) on two of its customer facing mobile banking applications, ‘Pockets’ and ‘iMobile’.

UPI enables bank account holders (of banks participating in UPI) to send and receive money using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) without entering additional bank account details, the bank said in a statement.

Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO, ICICI said, “UPI is a path-breaking concept which will enable convenient person-to-person and merchant payments using mobile phones. I believe that it will revolutionise the landscape of electronic payments in India and go a long way in reducing the usage of cash in the economy.”

It is the first time in the world that a project of such a scale is being introduced to customers.

“ICICI bank is delighted to have partnered with NPCI to introduce UPI. We are the largest player on the IMPS and NUUP platforms and have also played a key role in conceptualising this new initiative along with NPCI. We have already received encouraging responses from users including non-ICICI Bank customers on creating their VPA using ‘Pockets’,” she added.

UPI is the simplest mode of making payments that aims to provide users with the convenience of completing transactions in lesser steps than earlier, thereby reducing the transaction time.

Anyone, including non-ICICI bank customers can access UPI by creating their VPA on ‘Pockets’, the company said.