National Payments Corporation of India Says It Will Not Ban Cryptocurrencies Through UPI

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India’s payments authority, the National Payments Corporation of India, has reportedly said that it will not ban cryptocurrency transactions. Banks are to make their own decision whether to allow crypto transactions.

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI), has refused to ban cryptocurrency transactions, local media reported Thursday. NCPI runs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an instant real-time payment system that facilitates inter-bank transactions. It is regulated by the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

• Instead of banning crypto transactions, NCPI has advised banks to make their own decision whether to allow transactions involving digital currencies based on their own risk assessment and advice from their own legal and compliance departments, the organization reportedly said.

• If NCPI had decided to restrict payments involving cryptocurrencies on UPI and Rupay cards, it would have been applied across all banks, leaving investors with little option to fund their cryptocurrency trades.

• In March last year, the Indian supreme court quashed the banking ban on the crypto industry by the central bank. However, a number of financial institutions reportedly still restrict transactions involving cryptocurrencies and have been closing accounts of crypto users.

• The Economic Times reported that nearly half a dozen banks have directed their payment operators to blacklist merchants that deal with cryptocurrencies. As a result, customers are unable to use online fund transfer methods — such as net banking, cards, and UPI — to fund their cryptocurrency trades.

• Meanwhile, the Indian government still has not introduced the cryptocurrency bill which it had planned to do during the budget session of parliament.

What do you think about NCPI’s decision to not ban cryptocurrencies and let banks decide for themselves? Let us know in the comments section below.