Swedish app company Truecaller made its first move in the mobile payments industry through a partnership with Indian bank ICICI.

Truecaller Pay will be available as an add-on to the existing Truecaller privacy and identity app, which the company said is currently the third most highly used application in India with a user base of 150 million. The app is designed to reduce spam calls and SMS, and identify the origins of such communications.

The new payments service will enable users to create a United Payment Interface (UPI) identity on the app. UPI standards were introduced by the Reserve Bank of India and cover payment transfers between banks. Compatibility with the standards means Truecaller customers can securely send money to other users or any mobile number registered with the National Payments Corporation of India’s BHIM app.

Truecaller’s identity services are available around the world, but the payments service is currently exclusive to the Indian market.

Truecaller co-founder and CSO Nami Zarringhalam (pictured, left) said: “Our focus has been to solve daily life problems of our users and in current context, it has been our users’ expectation for us to bring forth a secure and easy to use payment option that could be integrated within their most used app.”

“As our users in India on-board digitally and benefit from our platform, we also want to contribute to the country’s mission of going cashless.”

Zarringhalam was referring to an Indian government strategy to reduce the amount of physical cash in circulation in the country by ditching INR500 ($7.70) and INR1,000 notes.

ICICI Bank GM and head of digital channels Abonty Banerjee (pictured, right) added: “We believe this association shall make UPI payments seamless for a larger audience and will also play a crucial role in strengthening the Government’s Digital India mission.”