ICICI Bank’s UPI app is re-defining banking, reaches 1 lakh downloads

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ICICI Bank’s UPI app is re-defining banking, reaches 1 lakh downloads 
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ICICI bank said it has crossed one-lakh Virtual Payment Addresses (VPA) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) within three weeks of its launch.

So as to further increase the usage of UPI, the bank has announced partnership with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to offer UPI based payments at its retail outlets, making it the largest forthcoming deployment of in-store payments using UPI.

UPI is available on two of the bank's customer facing mobile banking applications - 'Pockets' and 'iMobile'. Anyone, including non-ICICI Bank customers can access UPI by creating their VPA on 'Pockets'.

With this, customers who have their VPA on ‘Pockets’ as well as ICICI Bank customers with ‘iMobile’ will be able to pay at over 6,500 HPCL petrol pumps and more than 2,000 stores of ABFRL across the country. The customers also can shop from Louis Philippe, Peter England, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Planet Fashion and Linen Club among others.

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"UPI is a path-breaking concept which will enable convenient person-to-person and merchant payments using mobile phones. It is the first time in the world that a project of such a scale is being introduced to customers. We intend to continue exploring more such potential partnerships which will go a long way in popularising the usage of UPI," Chanda Kochchar, MD and CEO, ICICI Bank told ET.

VPA acts as a financial address for a user in lieu of their 16 digital bank account number and the 11 digit IFSC code. Once the customers are registered for VPA, they can send and receive money from their smartphones without having to go to the bank and enter their bank account information or net banking user id and password.

Users can also make payments using UPI 24*7 on all days including bank holidays. Payment can also be made to merchants from their mobile phones.
(image: Indiatimes)