BackHere’s what Kotak Bhim and Khaalijeb apps’ users need to do
The bank decided to discontinue the Bhim UPI app as it feels that there are already too many apps in the space
PremiumKotak Mahindra Bank has pulled down its Bhim UPI (Unified Payment Interface) app from Play Store. The app allowed customers of any bank to download the app, register with it and use it to send and receive money.
The bank decided to discontinue the Bhim UPI app as it feels that there are already too many apps in the space. “Users have a choice of multiple standalone UPI apps in the market today and we don’t see this as a category differentiator. We believe in offering our customers an integrated payment experience which includes UPI, Bill Pay, IMPS, NEFT & RTGS among others. The Kotak UPI handle continues to be live on the Kotak mobile banking app," said Rohit Rao, chief communication officer, Kotak Mahindra Group, in an email to Mint.
In a separate move, the bank is also in the process of terminating its partnership with a payments app KhaaliJeb. According to the bank, this was a routine exercise where it evaluates partnerships. It had issued a statement that said: “We continue to be an active ecosystem participant and have a large network of strategic partners across categories including payments. With our connected banking platform, we continue to onboard new partners and routinely evaluate existing relationships."
This is not the first time UPI users faced problem. Earlier, when Reserve Bank of India had imposed moratorium on Yes Bank, many financial technology (fintech) companies’ transactions came to a halt until they changed their banking partner. That’s because RBI had disallowed transfer of money from any Yes Bank account. Here’s what would happen to the users who were using BHIM Kotak UPI and KhaaliJeb apps.
APP IS DISCONTINUED
As far as those who were using the Bhim Kotak app, their virtual payment address or VPA (like xyz@kaypay or abc@kotak) would continue. “If any bank takes down their UPI app, they would continue supporting the underlying UPI infrastructure on the UPI supported payments app," said Akash Gehani, COO and co-founder, Instamojo, a payments gateway.
It means, if someone send you money on the VPA that was on the Bhim Kotak app, the money will be delivered to your bank account. “When a user signs up on a UPI app, the user has to create a VPA which is then linked to a bank account. The user can link the same VPA to multiple bank accounts, on the same app. A user can continue using the unique handle on the UPI app, as long as their bank accounts are active," said Gehani.
But to send money or make payments, you will need to sign up with another app.
BANK TERMINATES PARTNERSHIP WITH AN APP
The bank will soon discontinue its partnership with KhaaliJeb. The payments app is in the process of partnering with a new bank. Users of KhaaliJeb app had a specific VPA from Kotak (@kmbl). The VPA was exclusive to KhaaliJeb. Users will not be able to send or receive money on this handle after the partnership ends. If someone would try to send money to the KhaaliJeb address, UPI apps would show it as an invalid address.
“The KMBL handle will not be used by us. If we happen to partner with a new bank, our existing customers will need to create a new UPI handle powered a new bank. The customers will have to go through a fresh sim binding registration for creating a UPI handle and linking bank accounts," said Prakash Kumar, co-founder, KhaaliJeb.
According to Gehani, when banks terminate partnerships with payments app, then the UPI ID which represents a bank name will stop functioning. “However, most payment companies have other partner banks to manage a situation like this smoothly. What it means from a user point of view is that though the unique ID will stop working, but the payment app will support the creation of a new UPI ID along with other partner banks to ensure user service continuity," he said
But as KhaaliJeb is a start-up that has been bootstrapping. It had partnered only with Kotak Mahindra Bank as the company got support at attractive pricing. “We would always be thankful towards Kotak for having belief in us and supporting an early stage start-up. The kind of pricing Kotak offered us was tremendously encouraging considering we were a bootstrapped start-up," said Kumar.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
