After a much-public spat between Flipkart-owned mobile wallet company PhonePe and ICICI Bank, the bank has now allowed its customers to make UPI transactions through the wallet app again.ICICI Bank had blocked transactions through PhonePe on January 13 citing security concerns and said PhonePe was allowing users of only Yes Bank's UPI handle to make payments on its app. PhonePe has partnered with Yes Bank to offer UPI payments since presently only banks have access to the UPI infrastructure.
Thousands of transactions had failed on the platform because of the block, according to PhonePe. An ICICI Bank spokesperson said "The merchant has now adhered to the NPCI guidelines on interoperability by making the necessary corrections in its App. Hence we have now started allowing UPI transactions on this App."
According to sources, the bank resumed transactions on PhonePe on Wednesday after the January 31 guidelines for the Android Intent Call had ended.
The NPCI had issued a guideline of Jan 31 for 'Android Intent calls', which entails that the app initiate an intent call to any other UPI enabled PSP App on the customer's mobile phone. PhonePe had earlier told ET that they had not activated the intent call since it was not being accepted by other apps and would have caused transaction failures.
Following the issue with ICICI Bank, PhonePe had temporarily halted payment through the UPI option on the Flipkart's Android app just ten days after it had integrated it. It is not clear when PhonePe will restore the UPI option on Flipkart app again.
ICICI Bank had cited "security related concerns about the access to UPI data to a non-banking application." It also accused PhonePe of following "restrictive practices by allowing users to make payments with only its UPI handle, in contravention to the UPI guidelines of interoperability to choose any app to make payments through UPI."
PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam and Yes Bank did not give an official comment till the time of the copy going online.
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