
The fintech space in India is heating up. WhatsApp, the most widely used messaging app in the country, has recently started rolling out a Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based payments feature here. Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India, UPI is an instant, real-time digital payment system for mobile-to-mobile money transfer between participating banks. With more than 200 million active users in India — the largest anywhere in the world — WhatsApp is expected to drive large volumes on peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and also become a popular platform for merchant payments. India is slated to be the first country globally to get the payments facility from WhatsApp.