New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS): Digital payment platform FreeCharge in partnership with Axis Bank on Monday launched Unified Payments Interface(UPI) that allows instant transactions from a smartphone using a virtual payment address(VPA).

Customers will be able to create a virtual address on the Freecharge Android app and link it to their bank account to register on the UPI platform. 

"The partnership allows Freecharge users to pay for transactions from their bank accounts and they don't have to be existing customers of Axis Bank," said Govind Rajan, CEO, Freecharge, in a statement. 

Customers can create multiple handles/VPA linked to their bank accounts. 

When the customer makes the payment using their handle or Axis Bank's VPA, they will be transferring money from their bank account to the merchant or beneficiary account without exposing details such as account number, IFSC code, etc. 

UPI eliminates the need for merchants to be PCI-DSS certified to store customers' payment credentials as the VPA can be stored against the customers' login. 

UPI is only available on the new version of Freecharge's Android app.