State Bank Of India (SBI), India’s biggest bank, today announced its arrival on the United Payments Interface (UPI) platform with the launch of its android app, SBI Pay.

“With the current demonetisation drive of the government and the push towards digital or cashless payments, SBI Pay is expected to be a game changer in the digital payment ecosystem as the bank has the largest customer base in the country,” Livemint quoted SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya saying.

The unified payments interface (UPI) platform was launched on 25 August with the blessings of the Reserve Bank of India. The idea was to revolutionise the idea of money in the country. Sending money to anyone who is linked through the Unified Payments Interface is now as easy as sending an SMS. All you need is a virtual payment address (VPA) which will act as a unique identifier.

SBI is slightly late to the platform. Some 30 banks have now enabled UPI on their own apps, most of which are available on the Google Playstore; the iOS (Apple) versions will come later. Most of the banks have now started accepting payments through UPI. Just a couple of days back, India’s most valuable bank, HDFC, also joined the UPI bandwagon. The arrival of SBI and HDFC will certainly prove helpful in pushing the country towards a cashless economy.

You can download the SBI Pay android app here.