UPI apps will have to deactivate these UPI IDs, here’s why

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has issued a circular for third-party UPI apps like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe etc. The circular has asked banks and these third-party apps to deactivate UPI IDs and numbers that have been inactive for over a year to prevent inadvertent money transfers.

Identified UPI IDs and phone numbers associated with those IDs shall be disabled for inward credit transactions - disabling them from receiving money on these numbers. Moreover, PSPs shall deregister the associated phone numbers from the inactive UPI IDs, as per the guidelines.

Customers with inward credit on UPI IDs and phone numbers blocked will have to re-register in their UPI apps for UPI mapper linkage. Customers can make payments, and non-financial transactions using UPI PIN as needed.

As per the new NPCI guidelines, UPI apps will have to perform Requester Validation (ReqValAd) before initiating ‘Pay-to-contact’ and ‘Pay to mobile number’. UPI apps will show the customer name which has been fetched before initiating the transaction and shall not display the name which has been stored at the app's end.