NPCI denies loophole in BHIM app

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which developed the application for the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), has denied reports about technical malfunction or vulnerability of the app.

In a statement issued on Monday, NPCI said there was no vulnerability or loophole reported in Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) application or the UPI system.

‘Robust security’

“NPCI has done intensive testing, robust design of security controls and continuous monitoring of its UPI infrastructure. The environment in which BHIM or UPI is run by NPCI is highly secure and certified with best global practices like PCI DSS ISO 27001. The packages have also been audited by reputed IT security firms. NPCI has put in place adequate governance mechanism for banks to report any fraud or system issues and its redressal,” the statement said.

Earlier this month, Pune-based Bank of Maharashtra had filed a first information report in Pune against 50 people for allegedly pulling out money using the UPI app causing a loss of ₹6 crore to the bank.

“The technical lacunas ...were present in the application. These were noticed by some unscrupulous elements and taken undue advantage of. However, the bank has taken all necessary steps and corrections have been made in the system so as to prevent the recurrence of similar incidence in future and MAHA UPI will continue to provide the services to the customers,” Bank of Maharashtra said in a statement.

“Some of the customers have returned the transaction amount to the bank after issuance of the notice and for the remaining, we have notified the investigative agencies and the due course of action will be taken as per law,” the lender said.

While the there was 19.16 million downloads of the BHIM app, only 5.1 million customers were able to link to it their bank accounts, NPCI said.