BHIM

Indian mobile payments app

For other uses, see Bhim (disambiguation).

BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money)

Developer(s)| NPCI
Initial release| 30 December 2016; 8 years ago (2016-12-30)
Stable release(s)

| Android| 4.0.3 / 16 May 2025; 2 months ago (2025-05-16)

|

iOS| 4.0.3 / 20 May 2025; 2 months ago (2025-05-20)

Operating system|

* Android 5 & above
* iOS 9.0 and above

Platform|

* Google Play
* App Store

Size| 46 MB (Android)
79.9 MB (ios)
Available in| 20 languages
Type| Mobile app
License| Open source
Website| www.bhimupi.org.in

BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is an Indian state-owned mobile payment app developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Launched on 30 December 2016,[1] it is intended to facilitate e-payments directly through banks and encourage cashless transactions.[2][3] The application supports all Indian banks which use UPI, which is built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) infrastructure and allows the user to instantly transfer money between 170 member banks[4] of any two parties.[5] It can be used on all mobile devices.[6] The app is named in honour of B. R. Ambedkar.[7][8][9]

## Operation

[edit]

BHIM allows users to send or receive money to or from UPI payment addresses, or to non-UPI based accounts (by scanning a QR code with account number and IFS code or MMID code).[10]

Unlike mobile wallets (Paytm, MobiKwik, M-Pesa, Airtel Money, etc.) which hold money,[11] the BHIM app is only a mechanism which transfers money between different bank accounts. Transactions on BHIM are nearly instantaneous and can be done at any time, including weekends and bank holidays.

BHIM now also allows users to send or receive digital payments through Aadhaar authentication.[12] BHIM will be made available on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in an effort to challenge PhonePe and Google Pay's hegemony.[13]

### On-device wallet

[edit]

On September 20, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das officially launched an on-device wallet called UPI Lite at Global Fintech Fest 2022. As per NPCI, some of the early use cases involve FASTag recharges, insurance payments, and EMI collections offline. Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank enabled UPI Lite feature on BHIM.[14]

## Transaction fees and limits

[edit]

Currently, there is no charge for transactions from ₹1 to ₹100,000.[15][16] Some banks might, however, levy a fee for UPI or IMPS transfers.

In 2017, Indian banks proposed transaction charges on UPI transactions,[17] but there is no information on whether transactions through BHIM will also be charged.[18]

## Language support

[edit]

As of January 2023[update] the app supports 20 languages (including English), and is expected to support all 22 recognised languages of India.[19]

## License

[edit]

NPCI on 9 November 2022 announced that the BHIM app will use an open source license model. All regulated financial entities can now use the source code and in the future release the same functionalities that the BHIM app uses.[20]

## Reception

[edit]

During the 2017 Union budget of India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the app is currently being used by over 12.5 million Indian citizens,[21] and that the government will launch two new schemes to promote its use. One will be referral payments for individuals, and the other will be cashback for merchants who accept payments.[22] In October 2021, the BHIM UPI platform surpassed a record of $100 billion in value (₹7.71 lakh crore) with over 4.2 billion digital transactions.[23] Earlier in 2021, Bhutan became the first country to adopt the BHIM UPI for their digital transactions after the approval of the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan.[24]

## Security

[edit]

In May 2020, VPNMentor, a cyber security firm, disclosed that the BHIM app suffered a huge data breach leaking approximately 7.26 million Indian users' personal and financial data, such as name, contact details, Aadhaar card, PAN card, caste certificate, fingerprint scans, educational certificates and more. The 4.09 GB files were leaked from a CSC operated website because of a misconfigured AWS S3 bucket, and not the official BHIM website. CSC explicitly mentioned, however, that it is working with BHIM and NPCI in partnership. VPNMentor and other cybersecurity experts confirm the data to be authentic, but BHIM and NPCI claim that the breach never took place. The issue has now been fixed.[25]

## See also

[edit]

* India portal
* Banks portal
* Money portal

* National Unified USSD Platform
* Unified Payments Interface

## References

[edit]

1. ^ S, Arun (30 December 2016). "Modi launches mobile payment app". The Hindu.
2. ^ "People can now bank with thumb using BHIM app: PM Modi at Digi Dhan Mela". The Indian Express. 30 December 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
3. ^ "Modi launches app, says your thumb will act as your bank". Hindustan Times. 30 December 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
4. ^ "BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) | Digital India Programme | Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology(MeitY) Government of India". digitalindia.gov.in. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
5. ^ "IMPS Live Members | NPCI - National Payments Corporation of India". www.npci.org.in. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
6. ^ "Modi launches app, says your thumb will act as your bank | india-news". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
7. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Karabi (29 February 2024). Mobile Commerce (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall India Pvt., Limited. p. 293\. ISBN 978-93-91818-42-5. "Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is a mobile payment app that allows mobile users to transfer money between any two bank accounts using their mobile devices. It is developed by NPCI and processed by UPI. It was named after B.R. Ambedkar and is a part of Indian government's Digital India initiative to encourage cashless transactions."
8. ^ Mehta, Nalin (2023). India's Techade: Digital Revolution and Change in the World's Largest Democracy. Westland Non-fiction. ISBN 978-93-5776-797-2. "India named its State-run BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app, for easy digital financial transactions using UPI, after the Constitution-maker and visionary for Dalit rights, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar."
9. ^ "PM Narendra Modi launches BHIM app for e-payments, links it to Bhimrao Ambedkar". The Indian Express. 31 December 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2025. "The indigenously developed mobile application — BHIM — has been named after Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Modi said, adding that, the Reserve Bank of India, and the concept of finance commission to distribute wealth between Centre and states, were the brainchildren of Ambedkar's research."
10. ^ "BHIM UPI Official website". National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). 12 January 2017. Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
11. ^ "How is BHIM app different from mobile wallets- Business News". businesstoday.in. 23 February 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
12. ^ "How to transfer money using Aadhaar number via BHIM App: Follow steps". India Today. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
13. ^ P, Suraksha (4 May 2024). "BHIM looks to bulk up with ONDC to take on digital payment heavyweights". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
14. ^ Chanchal (20 September 2022). "UPI Lite among key digital payment initiatives launched: Here's how it works". mint. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
15. ^ "National Payments Corporation of India". npci.org.in. Archived from the original on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
16. ^ "IRCTC to launch new app for faster booking of tickets". Retrieved 7 June 2017.
17. ^ "Banks to start charging for P2P payments on UPI". Moneycontrol. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
18. ^ "BHIM UPI charges: Digital payments to get cheaper; No fee for transactions below Rs 100". Zee Business. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
19. ^ "BHIM Anniversary Edition". BHIM UPI. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
20. ^ "NPCI announces BHIM app open-source license model". mint. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
21. ^ "Budget 2017: Jaitley says BHIM app now has 125 lakh downloads". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
22. ^ "Union Budget 2017: Govt announces two new incentives to promote BHIM app". The Indian Express. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
23. ^ "UPI Transactions Value Crosses Record $100 Billion In October, On Track To End FY22 At Over $1 Trillion". Moneycontrol. November 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
24. ^ Ohri, Nikunj (13 July 2021). "Bhutan first country to adopt UPI; FM hails platform's role during lockdown". Business Standard India. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
25. ^ "BHIM Data Leak Exposes 7M Indian Users Data: Risk of Fraud & Theft". Hack Reports. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

* v
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Digital payment providers

Active|

* 2C2P
* Adyen
* Airtel Payments Bank
* Alipay
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* Ant Group
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* Worldline SA
* Worldpay, Inc.
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Defunct|

* AirTag
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Remittance|

* CurrencyFair
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* OFX
* Remitly
* Rewire
* Ria Money Transfer
* Transfast
* TransferMate
* Travelex
* Western Union
* Wise
* WorldRemit
* XE

Related|

* Digital currency
* Digital wallet
* Mobile payment
* Payment service provider
* List of online payment service providers
* European Mobile Payment Systems Association

* Category

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* e

Banking in India

Institutes|

| Central bank|

* v
* t
* e

Reserve Bank of India

Regulation|

* Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
* Monetary Policy Committee

People|

* Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
* Deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India

Buildings|

* Reserve Bank of India Staff College
* RBI Monetary Museum

Subsidiaries|

* Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran
* Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India

Think tanks|

* BBB
* BCSBI
* NPCI
* IBA
* IDRBT

Speciality banks|

* IFCI
* All India Financial Institutions :
* Exim Bank of India
* NABARD
* NHB
* SIDBI

Other|

* BIFR
* IBBI
* IBPS
* Deposit Insurance (DICGC)

Public-sector
banks|

* Bank of Baroda
* Bank of India
* Canara Bank
* Central Bank of India
* Indian Bank
* Indian Overseas Bank
* Jammu & Kashmir Bank
* Punjab & Sind Bank
* Punjab National Bank
* State Bank of India
* UCO Bank
* Union Bank of India

Private-sector
banks|

* Axis Bank
* Bandhan Bank
* CSB Bank
* City Union Bank
* DCB Bank
* Dhanlaxmi Bank
* Federal Bank
* HDFC Bank
* ICICI Bank
* IDBI Bank
* IDFC First Bank
* IndusInd Bank
* Karnataka Bank
* Karur Vysya Bank
* Kotak Mahindra Bank
* Nainital Bank
* RBL Bank
* South Indian Bank
* Tamilnad Mercantile Bank
* Yes Bank

Foreign banks|

| Foreign Bank Branches|

* Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
* ANZ
* Bank Maybank Indonesia
* Bank of America
* Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait
* Bank of Ceylon
* Barclays
* Credit Suisse
* CTBC Bank
* Deutsche Bank
* HSBC
* Maybank
* MUFJ
* Rabobank
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* SMBC
* Standard Chartered India

|

Wholly owned subsidiary (WOS)|

* DBS Bank
* State Bank of Mauritius
* Emirates NBD

Wound up/closed (or in process)|

* Antwerp Diamond Bank
* Citibank

Small finance banks|

* AU
* Fincare
* Capital
* ESAF
* Equitas
* Jana
* North East
* Suryoday
* Ujjivan

Payments banks|

* Airtel
* National Securities Depository
* India Post
* Jio
* Paytm

| Surrendered licencees
or wound up|

* Aditya Birla
* Vodafone M-Pesa
* Tech Mahindra

|

Cooperative
banks|

* Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank.
* Buldana Urban Cooperative Credit Society
* Cosmos Bank
* Dombivli Nagari Sahakari Bank
* Kerala Bank
* Mizoram Co-operative Apex Bank
* Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank
* Repco Bank
* Saraswat Bank
* Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank
* TNSC Bank

Regional rural banks|

* Assam Gramin Vikash Bank
* Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank
* Mizoram Rural Bank
* Paschim Banga Gramin Bank
* Puduvai Bharathiar Grama Bank
* Tamil Nadu Grama Bank
* Uttar Bihar Gramin Bank
* Uttarakhand Gramin Bank
* Vananchal Gramin Bank

| Andhra|

* Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank
* Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank

|

Kerala|

* Kerala Gramin Bank
* North Malabar Gramin Bank
* South Malabar Gramin Bank

Uttar Pradesh|

* Allahabad UP Gramin Bank
* Gramin Bank of Aryavart
* Sarva UP Gramin Bank

Defunct banks|

| Merged|

| PSB|

* New Bank of India
* Dena Bank
* Vijaya Bank
* Allahabad Bank
* Andhra Bank
* Corporation Bank
* Oriental Bank of Commerce
* United Bank of India
* Syndicate Bank

|

SBI|

* Bank of Bombay
* Bank of Calcutta
* Bank of Madras
* Imperial Bank of India
* State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur
* State Bank of Hyderabad
* State Bank of Indore
* State Bank of Mysore
* State Bank of Patiala
* State Bank of Saurashtra
* State Bank of Travancore
* Bharatiya Mahila Bank

Rescued|

* Global Trust Bank (OBC)
* Lakshmi Vilas Bank (DBS)
* Nedungadi Bank (PNB)
* United Western Bank (IDBI)
* United Industrial Bank (Allahabad Bank)
* Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (Unity SFB)

Acquired|

* Bank of Madura
* Bank of Rajasthan
* Bengal Central Bank
* Centurion Bank of Punjab
* Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China
* Grindlays Bank
* National Bank of India
* ING Vysya Bank
* Mercantile Bank of India, London and China
* Lord Krishna Bank
* Suvarna Sahakari Bank
* Times Bank
* Vysya Bank

| PSB|

* Bharat Overseas Bank
* Pandyan Bank

|

Wound up|

* Bank of Chettinad
* Dass Bank

Failed|

* Alliance Bank of Simla
* Arbuthnot & Co
* Commercial Bank of India
* Exchange Bank of India & Africa
* (New) Oriental Bank Corporation
* Oudh Commercial Bank
* Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank

Liquidated|

* Bengal Bank (1784)
* Bank of Bombay (1720)
* Bank of Hindostan
* General Bank of India
* General Bank of Bengal and Bihar
* Nath Bank
* Palai Central Bank
* The Commercial Bank (1819)
* The Calcutta Bank (1824)
* The Union Bank (1828)
* The Government Savings Bank (1833)
* The Bank of Mirzapore (1835)
* Travancore National and Quilon Bank

Networks|

| Interbank networks|

* Cirrus
* NFS
* PLUS

|

ATM networks|

* BANCS
* Cashnet
* CashTree
* MITR

Cards|

* Mastercard
* Debit Mastercard
* Maestro
* RuPay
* Visa
* Visa Debit
* Visa Electron

Online transfers|

* AEPS
* BBPS
* BHIM
* IMPS
* NEFT
* RTGS
* UPI

Payment service
providers|

* Atom
* BHIM
* BillDesk
* CCAvenue
* Paytm
* Sarvatra Technologies
* Zeta India

| Digital wallets|

* Amazon Pay
* BharatPe
* Freecharge
* Google Pay
* Mobikwik
* Payoneer
* PayU
* Payworld
* PhonePe

|

Related topics|

* ATM usage fees
* Bank run
* Black money
* Counterfeit money
* De-materialisation (de-mat)
* Demonetisation
* 2016
* Low denomination coins
* Foreign exchange (ForEx)

* Lists:  List of banks
* List of oldest banks in India

| Protocol
and codes|

* Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)
* Indian Financial System Code (IFSC)
* National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP)
* Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS)

|

Rates &
ratios|

| Rates|

* Bank rate
* Mumbai Inter-Bank Bid Rate - MIBID/Mumbai Inter-Bank Offer Rate - MIBOR
* Mumbai Interbank Forward Offer Rate - MIFOR

|

Ratios|

* Capital Adequacy Ratio - CAR
* Statutory Liquidity Ratio - SLR
* Cash Reserve Ratio - CRR

Regulators|

* Insurance - IRDAI
* Banking - RBI
* Securities - SEBI
* Bankruptcy - IBBI

Insolvency,
bankruptcy and
reconstruction|

| Boards|

* BIFR
* IBBI
* CERSAI

|

Legislation|

* IBC
* SARFESI Act

Companies|

* ARCIL
* Edelweiss ARC
* IAMCL

Legislation|

* Banking Regulation Act, 1949
* Government Securities Act, 2006
* IBC, 2016
* RBI Act, 1934
* SARFESI Act, 2002
* Income-tax Act, 1961
* Companies Act, 2013
* Insurance Act, 1938
* FEMA, 1999
* RDDBFI, 1993

Tribunals|

* Company Law - NCLT
* Appellate - NCLAT
* Debt Recovery - DRT/Appellate - DRAT

Measures|

* Prompt Corrective Action

Other|

* Institute of Banking Personnel Selection
* Mumbai Consensus

* v
* t
* e

Financial technology in India

Payment gateways|

* Airtel Payments Bank
* Atom
* BharatPe
* BHIM
* Cred
* BillDesk
* CCAvenue
* PayU
* Sarvatra Technologies
* Zeta

Mobile wallets|

* Dhani
* Freecharge
* MobiKwik
* Paytm
* Payworld
* PhonePe

Online investments|

* AngelOne
* Coin
* ET Money
* FundsIndia
* Kuvera.in
* Zerodha

Lending|

* Bajaj Finance
* Paisabazaar
* Moneyview
* Capital First Ltd.

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