NPCI Directs Banks And Third-Party UPI Providers To Deactivate Unused UPI IDs،
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the non-profit organization that deals with digital retail payments in India, has asked third-party Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps to deactivate specific UPI identifiers. The organization decided this due to the increase in the number of abandoned UPI IDs that are no longer in use. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest NPCI directive.
Google Pay, PhonePe and others will soon have to comply
Third-party UPI apps, such as Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, etc., will disable inactive UPI IDs for a year. All PSP and TRAP banks have been directed to identify unused UPI IDs and associated phone numbers that have not carried out any financial or non-financial transactions for a year. Identified UPI IDs will not be able to receive money from other users. Other PSPs have also been asked to remove these phone numbers from UPI.
What to do if your UPI ID is disabled?
Customers who wish to reactivate their UPI ID will have to re-register in the third-party UPI apps of their choice. Additionally, apps must perform validation before initiating any contact-based transaction to display the customer’s name instead of the display name registered with the app.
The decision will reduce accidental transactions
In the official circular, NPCI mentions that customers can change their mobile number without delinking the old number from UPI services and other banking systems. This, in turn, could lead to several problems. Since telecom providers can assign a used number to another user after 90 days of inactivity, the number could fall into the hands of bad actors, who could exploit connected services for unethical purposes.
PSPs and TRAPs must comply by December 31, 2023
The new guideline would mean that users will not be able to transfer money to a person’s inactive UPI ID, even by mistake. Secondly, it will also prevent malicious actors from impersonating the user and accessing sensitive information as companies will remove these phone numbers and associated UPI IDs by December 31, 2023.
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