As part of a move that is being seen as a big vote of confidence, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is ready to migrate its payment-related data to systems in India. The popular messaging company has confirmed, in a PTI report, this week that it is setting up the systems to ensure all India-centric data does not move out of the country.
Instead of trying to find a loophole, it’s interesting that WhatsApp, with over 230 million active users in the country, is willing to accept the demands of the Indian government, without hurting its chances of succeeding in the country.
This decision comes close on the heels of the 15 October deadline set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for payment companies to migrate all data to the country, failing which they will have to face some consequences.
The clamour for localising payment data has been strongly advocated by the RBI, and has been supported by local players like Paytm and PhonePe, which is owned by Flipkart (now Walmart). Most industry experts aren’t sure if the decision to move data geographically will derive any benefit.
“In response to India’s payments data circular, we’ve built a system that stores payments-related data locally in India.”WhatsApp spokesperson to PTI
Especially in a country like India, where the data protection laws are yet to become part of the legal framework, and are expected to come through by the end of this year.
It’ll be worth seeing what is the plan of WhatsApp on making this happen, and more importantly, which ‘system’ is it referring to in this regard.
And any movement made by WhatsApp, a big global brand will likely be of interest for other payment players like MasterCard and Visa, who’ve got over 800 million debit cards in circulation in the country as per the latest RBI data.
RBI has clearly stated there is no possibility of extending the deadline of 15 October any further, which could work against most of the payment players like Google, who’re keen that the government extends the deadline to smoothen the migration process.
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