WhatsApp Pay will not be Launched until it sets up an Office and a Team in India.

The Government of India has delayed the launch of WhatsApp Payments Service until it sets up an office and recruits a team for the same in India. Earlier, the company had released a 'beta product' to limited users in the country however now it has removed that statement.

The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has asked RBI to intervene to check if payment solutions like WhatsApp violate rules laid for financial services in India. This month the ministry had issued a warning to WhatsApp to give more information regarding its privacy policies.

In another development, WhatsApp has released an updated privacy policy statement and has brought HDFC Bank and Axis Bank under its partner banks. The statement lays out terms and conditions under which consumers of both banks will be able to use respective UPI ( Unified Payments Interface) facility. The messaging service is also working to bring more banks under their platform.

In its policy it also stated that they will not share any encrypted BHIM UPI transaction information to Facebook, its parent company. This comes after Facebook has been slammed globally by users for data privacy concerns.

The regulatory hurdles and Facebook's controversies have delayed the launch of WhatsApp Pay in India. With a user base of 200 Mn in India, WhatsApp Pay was supposed to be the next big move for the messaging app but the continuous delay will make it difficult for them to compete with already established apps like Paytm, PhonePe etc.

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