UPI SBI Pay – Powered App from SBI
After the unexpected demonetization by the Union Government, transactions all over India have taken a hit and consumers and traders all over India are facing problems alike. Government is fully aware of the fact and is asking banks and other companies to help increase the instances of mobile banking or cashless transactions to deal with the cash scarcity problem.
To deal with this problem, State Bank of India has come up with a new app known as SBI Pay. This new app that they have recently launched is powered by UPI interface. UPI stands for Unified Payment Interface which allows every UPI user to receive or send money. They don’t need to a customer of SBI.
State Bank of India is the largest bank in India. This bank is over 200 million customers. SBI also caters to 5.2 million users through their mobile banking features. Now, with SBI Pay, the bank joins the banking industry force trying hard to combat with the cash shortage issue that has plagued the entire nation.
Prior to SBI, 17 other banks had already launched their UPI based app to aid cashless transaction across the nation. SBI becomes the 18th bank to offer this service. However, SBI joined in late even though analysts across the country were expecting that SBI will be launching its UPI powered banking app soon. Just expectations popped out of two factors – first, government is going for a cashless push and second, one fourth of all banking customers in India are present on SBI’s banking platform.
As of now there are 30 banks in total which are accepting UPI payments. The SBI Pay app intends to allow customers to make and receive payments and also use the app for shopping.
According to SBI Chairman, Arundhati Bhattacharya, the SBI Pay app will become a game changer in the whole ecosystem of digital payments. This app, according to her, will aid government’s push or initiative towards cashless or digital payments.
List of Banks With UPI-Based App
Here is a quick list of all banks that have released UPI-powered app to help customers with cashless transactions. The table below mentions only the names of the banks and their corresponding apps.
| Name of Bank | Name of App |
| Axis Bank | Axis Pay |
| Andhra Bank | Andhra Bank ONE |
| Vijaya Bank | Vijaya UPI App |
| HDFC Bank | HDFC Bank MobileBanking |
| UCO Bank | UCO-UPI |
| Oriental Bank of Commerce | OBCUPI PSP |
| United Bank | United UPI |
| ICICI Bank | Pockets-ICICI Bank |
| Catholic Syrian Bank | CSB UPI |
| Bank of Maharashtra | MAHAUPI |
| Canara Bank | Canara Bank UPI – Empower |
| DCB Bank | DCB Bank |
| Union Bank | Union Bank UPI |
| Punjab National Bank | PNB UPI |
| South Indian Bank | SIB M-Pay (UPI Pay) |
| Federal Bank | Lotza |
| Karnataka Bank | KBL – Smart |
| State Bank of India | SBI Pay |
SBI Pay Available Only for Android Users Now
SBI came in late. Though the bank is positive that SBI Pay will be a game changer, there is a hiccup that SBI needs to address soon. Well, there isn’t much SBI can do about this hiccup because the problem lies with NPCI or National Payments Council of India. NPCI is yet to provide UPI specification for iOS. Because the UPI platform’s specifications for Apple mobile has not yet been provided, SBI has release SBI Pay only and only for Android users. So, iPhone users will either have to wait for iOS compatible SBI Pay app or they can get a new Android phone to make use of the SBI Pay app.
Good news however is that SBI is not alone here. All other banks who have launched their UPI-based app are catering only to Android users. iOS users of those banks are also out of luck for the time being.
Pros and Cons of SBI Pay
Let us first look at the pros or advantages of SBI Pay. We can then focus on the disadvantages of the app. So, let us start:
Pros of SBI Pay
- SBI Pay is powered by UPI. Since UPI is independent of platform, SBI Pay can be used by anyone. Even those people who do not have an account with SBI can download this app and use it for paying or receiving money.
- The only thing that is required for using SBI Pay app is a virtual address where the payment has to be sent or the payment has to be received. This virtual address should have your phone number and your bank details attached. These two identifiers alone are enough for transactions.
Cons of SBI Pay
- SBI Pay currently does not support higher payment limits. It does support facilities for merchant payments. The only feature available is Peer-to-Peer transfer.
- Users have reported that the User Interface is not very friendly.
- There are several bugs as of now. For instance, SBI Pay could operate only with SIM 1 (in case of dual SIM phones). The option of selecting the preferred SIM was not present. Users have reported that the bug was later fixed through an update. There may be other bugs which may surface over time.
- The SBI Pay is not a full-time wallet service like Paytm. Users cannot store money in it. Money will be debited directly from the bank account that is attached with SBI Pay.
According to reports, India was experiencing only 10,000 UPI transactions on a daily basis with all banks combined. However, it is expected that with SBI Pay in picture now, the number of UPI transactions will increase significantly.
In case you are a SBI Pay user, feel free to share your experience with us. We will love to hear from you. Also, in case you don’t know where to find SBI Pay app, you can simply visit Google Play Store from your Android device (phone or tab) and search for SBI Pay. The first app that shows up is the one you need to install. The app will be asking for access permission to the following:
- Location
- SMS
- WiFi Connection Information
- Device ID and Call Information
Only if you accept and grant permission, the app will be installed on your Android Device. In case you are still not able to find the app, you can download the app from here. However, open this link from your android device.
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