Check how to withdraw money from mobile wallets at ATM!

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a landmark move has permitted the cash withdrawal and merchant payment from prepaid instruments (PPIs) such as mobile wallets. It has also allowed the merchant to become part of RBI’s centralized payment systems – RTGS (real-time gross settlement) and NEFT (national electronic funds transfer), reported Mint.

RBI’s recent move will ultimately bring the wallets on par with the bank accounts without any account number. Clearly, wallets do not own ATMs, so how does one withdraw money from wallets at ATMs or pay at a merchant?

Interestingly, a Mint report quoted Praveen Dhabhai, Director and Chief operating officer of Payworld Money (a payments company that also has a mobile wallet), saying, “Wallets will issue a prepaid card to their customers. Using the card, they can withdraw money at ATMs and swipe the card at merchant stores.”

The Reserve Bank of India in October 2018, issued guidelines on the interoperability of wallets to offer money transfer via UPI (unified payments interface) and issue prepaid cards on networks RuPay and Visa.

Until now, this was optional, and there were few takers. But in the recent monetary policy review, the central bank has made it mandatory for PPIs to be interoperable, reported Mint.

According to the notification, interoperability would happen in three phases:

• First, wallets will join UPI.
• Second, wallets would be allowed to transfer money to a bank account using UPI.
• Third, PPIs will be allowed to issue cards. Some companies that volunteered have already started issuing cards.

Currently, the wallets cannot use Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), which is offered by the banks. And according to Dhabhai, that’s because most users don’t link their wallets to Aadhaar.