Responding to data security concerns raised by ICICI Bank with regard to its payments app, PhonePe, e-commerce player Flipkart on Monday said it has followed all guidelines laid down by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
These include features related to security and interoperability for an app to go live on the UPI platform, it added.
In a letter to its users, Flipkart said it had undergone 100 test cases, detailed certification, vulnerability assessment, penetration testing and third-party application security testing, before getting the NPCI nod.
On January 13, ICICI Bank decided to block all its customers from using the PhonePe mobile app and digital payment services without any prior notice to YES Bank (Flipkart’s UPI banking partner).
ICICI Bank said: “Some banks, including us, have raised security-related concerns at appropriate forums about the access to UPI data to a non-banking application… Pending resolution of these concerns, we have temporarily declined to undertake UPI transactions originating from this entity.”
However, Flipkart said that since PhonePe’s launch in August 2016, no such issue had come up. “It’s been 72 hours since ICICI blocked its customers from using PhonePe,” the statement said.
YES Bank has confirmed to Flipkart that the bank has not received any official letter from ICICI Bank or NPCI.
Flipkart estimates that more than 20,000 UPI transactions, amounting to more than ₹5 crore by value, have failed due to ICICI Bank’s action.
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