Important Update for Paytm, Amazon Pay and other Payment App Users

As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, it was stated that all the mobile wallet companies including Paytm, Amazon Pay, PhonePe and Freecharge need to complete the KYC (Know Your Customer) process within March 2019. However, a recent update says that the mobile wallet companies are granted time till February 29, 2020 to get their KYC done for all the active users.

KYC is a formal authentication process, according to which the customers using mobile wallet applications (except the ones that completely relies on Unified Payment Interface (UPI)) have to reach out to their mobile wallet companies and get their KYC done.

“It is advised that the timeline for the conversion of minimum detail PPIs to KYC compliant PPIs has been extended from 18 months to 24 months. The PPI-MD has been amended suitably. It may also be noted that no further extension will be granted for this purpose,” the RBI was quoted as saying in its Amendment to Master Direction on Issuance and Operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) notification.

The current set of guidelines by RBI indicates all the wallets as Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI). Though there were some temporary online KYC procedures available, the wallet companies need to complete the KYC through physical verification. This means, Paytm alone needs to verify all its 350 million registered customers in person.

According to the Supreme Court order, Aadhar Card will not be accepted as the proof of verification since only the government can use Aadhaar for social welfare schemes. Rather, the customers can submit voter ID, passport and driving license for the KYC verification process.

Failing to complete the KYC process within February 29, 2020, will disable the function of the mobile wallets and users can no longer add or withdraw money. However, the existing balance will be active for usage until it becomes null.