New Delhi:
The RBI also denied that its circular on April 6, 2018 on "Storage of Payment System Data" has been toned down by FAQs issued on June 26, 2019. "It is submitted that Payment System Operators (PSOs) had sought clarification on certain implementation issues, from time to time, from Reserve Bank and the FAQs are intended to provide clarity on those issues to facilitate and ensure expeditious compliance by all PSOs," said the affidavit.
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The RBI acknowledged that the NPCI had communicated to it the System Audit Report and the Post Change Review Report sent to it by WhatsApp, which touched upon the details concerning the storage of payment system data. The RBI said that accordingly, by letter dated November 1, 2019, the NPCI was advised to ensure that the payment data elements, as referred to therein, are not stored by WhatsApp outside India beyond permitted timelines.
Subsequently, the NPCI had, through its letter dated January 7, said that they had received a letter from WhatsApp agreeing to complete all the pending issues by May 31, and requesting permission to go live.
The NPCI had then requested RBI's approval to grant the final 'go-live' to WhatsApp on UPI, subject "to (a) the third-party audit report confirming closure of the committed 2 items, and (b) acceptable VA/config reports from third party auditor".
WhatsApp had already informed the top court that it would not roll out its payment service without full compliance with the norms.
The RBI's response came on an application filed by the Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change, through advocate Virag Gupta, seeking a complete stoppage of the trials being conducted by WhatsApp Pay, alleging that the company has continued beta testing on its payments system on 1 million users in violation of data localization norms in India.
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(Inputs from IANS)
