The leading digital payments platform in India PhonePe has tied up with Axis Bank on the UPI multi-bank model. With the help of Axis Bank's "@axl" handle, PhonePe users can create and use multiple Unified Payments Infrastructure (UPI) IDs now.
The firm said in a statement that "PhonePe will also start acquiring merchants with Axis Bank". PhonePe is the largest digital payments platforms in India with 265 million registered users. If a bank's handle is temporarily out of service, customers will be ensured that they can still make transactions by using the multiple UPI IDs option given.
PhonePe in a statement said "This is in line with the company’s philosophy of offering users and merchant partners a seamless transaction flow. Collaborating with multiple banking partners will further strengthen the overall service reliability and uptime of PhonePe's offering".
PhonePe earlier joined hands with YES Bank and ICICI bank for creating and using UPI IDs for online payments.
Hemant Gala, Vice President of financial services and payments, PhonePe said that "Our platform now enables the users to choose between multiple handles for their UPI transactions on the multi-bank model. This partnership with Axis Bank will ensure greater business continuity for both our customers and merchant partners making their transaction experience seamless".
Sanjeev Moghe, EVP & head – cards & payments, Axis Bank said that "This collaboration with PhonePe strengthens our commitment towards digitization of the Indian payment ecosystem. It will help expand our reach to customers and the merchant community while offering secure and seamless payment experiences".
Clocking the highest volume of 968.7 million transactions in January, PhonePe continued its lead on UPI payments. PhonePe processed close to 42 percent of the overall UPI transactions, which stood at 2.3 billion in January 2021, and 44 percent in terms of overall payment value.