New Delhi: Google (Alphabet Inc.) on Tuesday said it has integrated Google Tez with State Bank of India (SBI), allowing customers of India’s largest lender to transact directly from their bank accounts through the mobile payments app.
SBI is the first public sector bank to have partnered with Google Tez. SBI customers can now create a unique UPI ID (for example, name@oksbi or mobilenumber@oksbi etc) to carry out the transactions.
To be sure, other state-run banks are also listed on the app and money can be sent to these bank accounts but the bank’s UPI ID cannot be generated on the app.
As of now, Google has partnered with four banks to allow users of Tez app to create their bank’s UPI handle and transact directly from their bank accounts on the app. Other than SBI, the three other banks are HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.
“Our shared commitment to excellence in customer service and bringing simple and secure payments for all will boost adoption of UPI and is a significant step forward in the digitization of cash,” said Rajnish Kumar, chairman of SBI.
SBI has a customer base of more than 400 million. It has the largest network of 22,584 branches in India and a network of nearly 59,000 ATMs.
In September, Google launched customized-for-India-app called Tez—which means “fast’ in English, suggesting that speed with which you can make payments will be the key.
The app which uses UPI platform for enabling transactions is available on the Google Play Store for Android phones and the Apple App Store for iPhones.
“We are still in very early stages of building a vibrant digital payments ecosystem – that brings together millions of smartphone users, small merchants, large businesses, and financial institutions. This is an important step forward in that journey,” said Diana Layfield, vice president, head of finance & commerce products, Next Billion Users.
Till now, Tez app has processed over 250 million transactions and has over 13.5 million monthly active users across India, claims Google.
More than 70 banks are already live on UPI.
The government has been pushing the UPI platform to boost digital payments in India, to reduce use of cash.
[“Source-livemint”]
