RBI has issued new guidelines for the UPI verification process, bringing Biometric authentication for UPI apps like PhonePe, Paytm, and GPay.
From today, UPI payment apps like PhonePe, Paytm, and GPay may go through a major change as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a guideline for the UPI verification process. As of now, we use UPI apps use PIN to make final transactions, but now that might change as per the new guidelines. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages India’s digital payments ecosystem, is introducing biometric authentication for UPI apps. These biometrics will be used as an alternative to PIN-based UPI authentication.
Biometric authentication for UPI apps
UPI payment services like PhonePe, Paytm, and GPay are expected to get biometric authentication for online payments from today, October 8. While the 4-digit PIN will remain in the process, the facial and fingerprint authentication will be used as an alternative to make the process faster and more secure for the tech-savvy users.
The biometric authentication is said to be backed by the Aadhaar, which is India’s identification system. Therefore, these authentications in UPI apps will be based on biometrics, which are already being used under the Aadhaar framework. The new biometric feature is also expected to be showcased at the Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai. NPCI said, “Each transaction is independently verified by the issuing bank using robust cryptographic checks, ensuring the highest level of safety while keeping the experience simple and seamless.”
This new biometric feature under the online payment platform will also allow users to change their UPI PINs from Aadhaar-based Face Authentication instead of the whole Aadhaar OTP verification process. Hence, it is said to make the entire UPI app process fast and seamless for users.
Benefits of biometric authentication
- The new biometric authentication for UPI apps will bring a faster payment process
- It will be more seamless and hassle-free to use biometrics. It will be an alternative to PIN, and remove the Aadhaar-OTP process of changing UPI PIN as well.
- Since it will be linked with the user’s Aadhaar framework, NPCI reassures that it will help combat several UPI-related scams and PIN-related fraud. Therefore, biometric authentication will be more secure.
