WhatsApp will start displaying legal name of users for every transaction made using WhatsApp Pay
India Today
As per the messaging app, this requirement is set by NPCI and designed to mitigate fraud across the UPI payments system.
WhatsApp has notified users that it will start displaying the legal name of users every time they make a payment using WhatsApp Payments. By legal name, WhatsApp means the same name as your bank account. As per the messaging app, this requirement is set by NPCI and designed to mitigate fraud across the UPI payments system. That is because people sometimes use different names or nicknames on their UPI platforms, but with the latest change, WhatsApp aims to curtail fraudulent practices that take place on UPI platforms.
“WhatsApp uses the phone number associated with your account to identify your bank account through UPI. The name associated with your bank account is the name that will be shared,” the company said in an FAQ. Your legal name, which is the same as your bank account , would be visible to the person you send money to or receive money from on WhatsApp’s UPI-based platform. WhatsApp has already started showing the notification regarding the changes that it is expected to make on its payments platform. The notification carries a link to WhatsApp’s FAQ page which details the need for the legal name and what exactly it is.
WhatsApp has announced that it will use the phone number linked with users' WhatsApp account to identify their bank account number. The name that has been used on the bank account will be shared with the people involved in WhatsApp transactions. "When you use payments on WhatsApp, other UPI users will be able to view your legal name. This is the same name as your bank account," the FAQ page reads.
WhatsApp lets users pick any name for their profile. It need not be their official name. Users can also use their nick name or add emojis next to their name on WhatsApp. But things won't be the same anymore. While users have not been asked to change their profile name, WhatsApp’s payment service will only display names as per their bank accounts when they opt in for the WhatsApp payments feature.
As far as the payment services are concerned, WhatsApp recently got approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to expand its WhatsApp Pay payments service to 40 million users in India. If you don’t know already, WhatsApp Pay is a payment feature available within the app. It is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform.
