WhatsApp has reportedly secured a regulatory nod in India to expand its payment offering to 40 million users in the country.

The Facebook-owned instant messaging app, whose payment service is currently restricted to 20 million people in India, has been seeking to remove this cap on users.

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It is now allowed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to double the user base to which it can provide its payment service, Reuters reported citing a person with direct knowledge of the development.

According to the source, the new cap would still pose a challenge to the company’s growth prospects in India, where its messaging service is used by over 500 million people.

WhatsApp and NPCI did not comment on the development and it is not known when the new cap would come into effect.

WhatsApp won the approval to launch its payment service in India in November last year. It competes with Google Pay, PhonePe and SoftBank– and Ant Group-backed Paytm in the country’s payment space.

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Recent moves by WhatsApp

In September this year, French payments services provider Worldline added WhatsApp Business API to its WL Mobile messaging solutions to enable conversations between businesses and clients located across the world through the WhatsApp messaging platform.

In May, WhatsApp re-launched money transfer services in Brazil, nearly a year after the central bank of the country banned it citing competition concerns.

This re-launch came shortly after a clearance issued by Brazilian central bank, enabling WhatsApp messaging service to let its users send each other funds using the Visa and Mastercard card networks.