A day after the Delhi High Court asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to explain how Google Pay was operating in India apparently without authorization, Google has responded with an official statement clarifying its position on the matter.
“Google Pay complies with all applicable legal requirements. Google Pay operates as a technology service provider to its partner banks, to allow for payments through the UPI infrastructure, and is not part of payment processing or settlement,” says a Google India spokesperson in a statement shared with News18.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant digital payment system, developed and implemented by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The NPCI is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India. UPI allows users to instantly transfer money between any two parties’ bank accounts. A lot of payments apps also use UPI to enable payments on their platform, including Google Pay, Amazon Pay, PhonePe and BHIM, which has been developed by the NPCI. Since the payment is done from one bank account to another, there is no need for users to load individual wallets with money.
“There is no requirement for licensing of these services under the prevailing statutory and regulatory provisions. In order to support our partner banks, our efforts in complying with the government’s data localisation norms are underway, and given the scale and complexity, we are being mindful to prioritise data security and uninterrupted services to our users as we make this transition,” adds the Google India spokesperson. Google India also adds that the central bank is apprised of the progress and the company will remain committed to complying with the laws of the land.
The matter will now be heard by the Delhi High Court on April 29.