JOIN USMobile messaging platform WhatsApp on Tuesday said it has set up a system in India to store payments related data locally to comply with RBI policy.
"In response to India's payments data circular, we have built a system that stores payments-related data locally in India," WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.
The company started piloting its payments service in India earlier this year. Around 1 million people are testing WhatsApp payments to transfer money in a simple and secure way, the spokesperson added.
On rollout of WhatsApp payments feature, the spokesperson said, "We hope to expand the feature to all of India soon, so we can contribute to the country's financial inclusion goals."
The RBI had in April given global payment companies six months time to store transaction related data of Indian customers within the country. The RBI data localisation rules will come into force from October 15.
The Central Bank had taken this decision to ensure better monitoring of payment service operations.
The RBI also said data should include the full end to end transaction details, information collected/carried/processed as part of the message/payment instructions.
The approval of the full-fledged rollout of WhatsApp payment service was stuck due to regulatory approvals from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the RBI.
Data localisation
On Monday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had met RBI Deputy Governor B P Kanungo to discuss the data localisation norm for global financial technology companies.
The data localisation mandate by RBI had drawn a mixed response from the industry with domestic payment companies.
Earlier, several payments firms, including Visa, Master Card, Facebook, PayPal and Google had met Jaitley to seek temporary relief from the RBI mandate.