Third-Party Application Provider

Feb. 27, 2024

The Reserve Bank of India has asked the National Payment Council of India to examine the request of One97 Communications, which owns Paytm, to become a Third-Party Application Provider for continued Unified Payments Interface operation of the Paytm application.

About the Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP):

It is an entity that provides UPI-compliant app(s) to the end-user customers to facilitate UPI-based payment transactions.
These applications could be mobile wallets, merchant apps, or any other platform that utilises UPI for payments.
NPCI, the umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, owns and operates the UPI platform.
Working of TPAPs
- TPAPs leverage the UPI infrastructure provided by NPCI and work with payment service providers (PSPs) and banks to facilitate transactions.
- They are responsible for ensuring that their applications adhere to security standards and compliance guidelines set by NPCI.
- As per the current regulations, payment service providers (PSPs) need to obtain a TPAP licence from NPCI to run UPI services and facilitate merchant transactions through partner banks.
Currently, there are 22 NPCI-approved 3rd party Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps that can be used to send and receive money from other UPI users by using UPI IDs.
They include Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Groww, Jupiter Money, Mobikwik, Phonepe, Samsung Pay, TataNeu and Whatsapp.