Airtel blocks e-wallet PhonePe

Chennai January 19: In the latest round of banks, telecom providers versus e-wallets, the former say it is about "security concerns," even as the latter allege it is to kill "competition." After ICICI Bank blocked Flipkart s PhonePe it has come to light that Airtel has over more than four months stopped allowing its customers to recharge using some wallets, including PhonePe.Customers of State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Kotak Mahindra have also voiced concerns that they have been unable to top up their PhonePe wallets using their parent bank s netbanking facility.However, PhonePe said this was a temporary phenomenon for a few days due to service issues and customers of Bank of Baroda and Kotak Mahindra can now use PhonePe. SBI clarified that its net banking facility has not been supporting any wallet, including that of PayTM, Freecharge, Citrus Pay , Mobikwik since last June due to "security concerns."ICICI Bank also pointed out security concerns. It recently blocked customers from accessing their accounts using PhonePe UPI s application -as the app discriminates against users of UPI apps of other banks.