New Delhi, Aug 17 (KNN) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Urjit Patel on Thursday launched the updated version of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) 2.0 developed by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

Along with enhanced security features and overdraft facility for customers and traders, updated version of UPI will also allow users to block funds for a future transaction and pre-authorize the same. This facility to set up a one-time mandate will be available to both consumers and merchants.

The upgrade will also enable customers to link their overdraft account to UPI, in addition to current and savings accounts.

In addition, while making a merchant payment, UPI 2.0 users will be able to access a digital invoice which will help them view and verify the merchant’s credentials and ascertain if the invoice has come from the correct merchant.

Another embedded security feature of this interface is the signed intent and QR, which will allow a customer to check the authenticity of merchants. While scanning a QR code, it will offer the user information to ascertain if the merchant is a verified UPI merchant

“UPI is a path breaking innovation that is unprecedented globally. Its high volume, low cost and highly scalable architecture built on an open source platform is a key to India’s transformation to a digital payment economy,” Nandan Nilekani, Advisor- Innovation, NPCI said.

The banks that have joined UPI 2.0 so far are State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, RBL Bank, YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank and HSBC. 

The first version of UPI was launched on April 11, 2016 and in the last two years the platform has emerged as a popular choice among users for sending and receiving money.