PM Modi’s BHIM app hits 5-mn downloads mark

The BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app has seen 5 million downloads since its launch on December 31, reports Shritama Bose in Mumbai. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) MD and CEO AP Hota told FE on Tuesday that the number of user registrations on BHIM so far is 1.5 million.

He added financial transactions on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) — a digital payments platform for feature phones — had jumped to 7,000-8,000 a day, up from 1,000 a day before November 8.

Hota said by March the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform can be used to pay utility bills and insurance premiums.

He believes more merchants will transact on UPI once the Indian Banks’ Association decides on the interchange rate. “While RBI has capped merchant discount rates, or the fee paid by merchants to banks for using point-of-sale terminals, IBA is yet to decide on interchange rates”, he explained.

Hota added that the RBI was yet to decide on whether standalone wallets could be interoperable with the UPI apps of banks on the UPI platform. Moreover, the interoperability of the BHIM-generated QR code with Visa and Mastercard QR codes was some away off, he felt, given the MNCs were unwilling to adapt their technology frameworks to make them compatible with UPI.

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