Popular messaging platform WhatsApp, which recently launched its payment service in India, is keen on working to expand financial inclusion in the country.
“To bring digital payments to people across segments, and especially to the underserved users in India, WhatsApp will continue to support the government’s efforts to drive financial inclusion with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI),” said Abhijit Bose, Head of India, WhatsApp at the Facebook Fuel for India event on Wednesday.
He noted that the model is also ripe for global adoption.
WhatsApp’s payments feature is now available to up to two crore users across in the country with support from banking partners State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank.
Growing digital payments is also part of the four key focus areas of WhatsApp as part of its India strategy.
Bose said these include fostering small and micro business systems, easy access to business services, growing digital payments and partnering to invest in social impact projects.
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WhatsApp has also been working in collaboration with financial institutions on pilots of micro-pension, micro-insurance and others, to ensure that every citizen has access to the critical financial services through their mobile devices.
“By the end of this year, buying affordable health insurance coverage from SBI General leveraging WhatsApp, will be a reality,” it said in a statement.
Further, with HDFC Pensions and pinBox solutions, WhatsApp will be leveraged to help enable saving for a dignified retirement, especially for people who do not have organised employment benefits or a retirement corpus to fall back on.
WhatsApp Business is also working with small businesses and kirana stores to help them grow and scale up.
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Source : From the Web