ICICI Bank partnership Truecaller for UPI Payments

Recognising the popularity of Truecaller, an application that identifies mobile numbers - ICICI Bank has partnered the Swedish communication company behind the app to enable in-app payments using the Unified Payments Interface.

According to ICICI Bank, Truecaller is the third-most used app in India and the new partnership will allow millions of users of the app in the country to instantly create a UPI id, send money to any UPI id or a mobile number registered with the BHIM app. It will also enable users to recharge their mobile number from within the Truecaller app itself.

This partnership makes the Truecaller - ICICI Bank platform among India's largest mobile payment platform with 15 crore customers of the app gaining access for UPI based payments. Any user of Truecaller app, including non-ICICI Bank customers can link their bank account of any bank (participating in UPI) to create a UPI id and instantly make payments in a safe and secure manner.

"With this new service, users will get the benefit of making quick and easy payments to any mobile number registered with the BHIM app, thereby enabling them to reach out to a wider section of people. Additionally, users can also undertake payments for utility services such as pre-paid recharges and post-paid mobile bills at the click of a button. We believe this association shall make UPI payments seamless for a larger audience and will also play a crucial role in strengthening the Government's 'Digital India' mission," said Abonty Banerjee, senior general manager & head - digital channels, ICICI Bank.

"As a first stop we will offer peer-to-peer solutions right from your contacts as well as recharge happening naturally from your dialer and SMS app. For close to a decade now, we have reiterated the immense benefits of mobile identity and how it really opens the world of opportunities. Our focus throughout has been to solve daily life problems of our users and in current context, it has been our users' expectation for us to bring forth a secure and easy to use payment option that could be integrated within their most used app," said Nami Zarringhalam, CSO and Co-founder Truecaller.

The National Payments Corporation of India has also come out in support of the partnership which leverages UPI. "This remarkable development will encourage more large players in the ecosystem to adopt UPI faster," said Dilip Asbe, chief operating officer, NPCI. This facility is available to customers of any bank who can instantly start using 'Truecaller Pay' with a one-time registration to create a new UPI id or add an existing ICICI Bank VPA seamlessly. On the completion of the one-time registration, users can instantly send money to any UPI id or mobile number, browse the recharge plan of various telecom operators and recharge their prepaid mobile or pay their postpaid mobile bills.