Paytm & PhonePe Mobile Apps Not Accepting Aadhaar For KYC

Aadhaar KYC was made mandatory for payment apps by RBI earlier this year.

KYC for users on prepaid wallets was made mandatory by RBI earlier this year. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Payment apps like Paytm and PhonePe are not letting users submit their Aadhaar numbers for the mandatory know your customer (KYC) process.

Instead, you can choose from documents such as passport, Voter ID or even driving licence right now. It’s interesting that, from initially insisting on its users verifying accounts via Aadhaar, the option isn’t available anymore.

This omission was first reported for larger brands like Airtel and Reliance Jio by the Times of India, who were apparently not allowed to use the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) database to verify their users. Now, similar treatment has been given to digital payment apps, with many users on social media reporting this development.

If you’re a regular user of payment apps like Paytm, PhonePe or even Freecharge, it is a known fact that since early this year because of RBI norms, none of these apps let you transfer funds or pay without getting the KYC process done.

We tried signing up for these respective apps to see this change for ourselves. It is confirmed that none of these apps are letting you complete your KYC via Aadhaar for now.

But why did this happen?

No option for KYC via Aadhaar on Paytm. (Photo: Paytm screen grab)

While we wait for a comment from Paytm, a PhonePe representative told The Quint that its Aadhaar eKYC license was pending approval with the UIDAI and even requesting entities for UIDAI like the KUA were told to stop supporting verification for the Flipkart-owned payment platform.

No sign of Aadhaar for e-KYC on PhonePe also. (Photo: PhonePe screen grab)

Other than these two apps, even Freecharge wasn’t letting users complete KYC norms with Aadhaar. We also tried signing in to MobiKwik, where Aadhaar KYC was still available.

Freecharge doesn’t even let you submit driving licence for KYC. (Photo: Freecharge screen grab)

It’ll be interesting to see if the lack of an Aadhaar KYC option lowers the number of new users added to any of these three apps. We’ll update this piece once we get further comments from these payment apps.