News Technology Apps Fact Check: '#GPay Banned by RBI' is fake news; Google Pay isn't banned in India

Fact Check: '#GPay Banned by RBI' is fake news; Google Pay isn't banned in India

Google Pay is trending on Twitter suggesting that the popular app has been banned in India

google, google pay, google pay digital wallet, NPCI, national payments corporation of india, upi, un Image Source : VANSHIKA MALHOTRAGoogle Pay on iPhone

Google Pay banned in India: A new trend is making rounds on social media suggesting that the popular payments platform Google Pay has been banned in India by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). However, worry not! The trending news is fake and is a result of a WhatsApp Forward being circulated online. As it turns out, Google Pay isn't banned in India. Read on to know more about this.

Google Pay is NOT banned in India

As clarified by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Google Pay is completely safe to use and is an authorised Third-Party App Provider (TPAP) to NPCI, which has been authorised as a Payments System Operator (PSO) by the RBI. Since Google Pay is an authorised TPAP, " All transactions made using any of the authorized TPAPs are fully protected by the redressal processes laid out by applicable guidelines of NPCI/RBI and customers already have full access to the same. Further, we would also like
to clarify that all authorised TPAP’s are already bound by full compliance with all the regulations and applicable laws in India.
"

To give you a background, the WhatsApp message being forwarded suggests that Google Pay isn't safe and any fraud that takes place via the app won't be handled by the RBI.

The '#GPay banned by RBI' began going viral after a recent report by Press Trust of India (PTI) suggested that as per RBI, Google Pay doesn't operate any payment systems in India it shouldn't be included in the list of authorised payment system operators by the NPCI. RBI's statement was shed light on by a PIL in the Delhi High court made by economist Abhijit Mishra. Following this, even Google Pay, via its Twitter handle, announced that it is fully secure and works completely under the law.

For a better idea, Google Pay isn't a Payment System Operator (PSO), NPCI is. But, it is a third-party app provider (TPAP), that too, an authorised one that also supports UPI transaction. It complies with the laws and is fully safe to use. 

The Google Pay trend is another example of how fast fake news spreads on social media. It is best advised to not believe everything you see or come across and verify the information via authorized sources. In this case, they are NPCI and Google Pay.

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