Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an

instant In physics and the philosophy of science, instant refers to an infinitesimal interval in time, whose passage is instantaneous. In ordinary speech, an instant has been defined as "a point or very short space of time," a notion deriving from its ...

real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The interface facilitates inter-bank

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

(P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used on mobile devices to instantly transfer funds between two bank accounts. The mobile number on the device is required to be registered with the bank. The UPI ID of the recipient can be used to transfer money. It runs as an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

(API) on top of Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), and is regulated by the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

(RBI). As of September 2022, there were 358 banks available on the platform with a monthly volume of 6.7 billion transactions amounting to . As of May 2021, the platform has over 10 crore (100 million) monthly active users in India. The proportion of UPI transactions in total volume of digital transactions grew from 23% in 2018–19 to 55% in 2020–21 with an average value of ₹1,849 per transaction. Digital transactions worth ₹8.31 lakh crore were made via the platform in January 2022. In FY 2021–22, the value of transactions crossed $1 trillion.

History

In April 2009, National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) was formed to integrate all the payment mechanisms in India and make them uniform for all retail payments. By March 2011, RBI found out that in India, only six non-cash transactions happen every year by an individual citizen while 10 million (1 crore) retailers accepted card-based payment. Around 145 million (14.5 crore) families have no access to any form of banking. There is also the problem of tackling

black money A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...

and

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

that happens mostly in cash. RBI in 2012 released a vision statement for a period of four years that indicated commitment towards building a safe, efficient, accessible, inclusive, interoperable and authorized payment and settlement system in India. It is part of the Green Initiative to decrease the usage of paper in domestic payments market. UPI was officially launched in 2016 for public use. Under RBI guidance, NPCI became the primary body tasked with developing a new payment system that is simple, secure, and interoperable. UPI works on four pillar push-pull interoperable model where there will be remitter/beneficiary front end PSP (

payment service provider A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that assists businesses to accept electronic payments, such as credit cards and debit cards payments. PSPs act as intermediaries between those who make payments, i.e. consumers, and those ...

) and remitter/beneficiary back end bank that settles the monetary transaction for the users. According to CEO of Netmagic Solutions, UPI became one of the most successful deep-tech innovation coming out of India. In December 2019], noting the success of UPI,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

suggested

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

Board to follow UPI as example in developing FedNow, a real-time payment system for

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. With exponential growth of UPI, India became the world's largest real-time payment market with 25.50 billion (25.5 billion) annual transactions in 2020 per data from ACI Worldwide and

GlobalData GlobalData Plc is a data analytics and consulting company, headquartered in London, England. The company was established in 1999, and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2000. It was previously called Progressive Digital Media and b ...

, ahead of China and United States. As per the

Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of the Economist Group, providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, such as monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, ...

Report 2021, UPI made India a leader in global real-time payment market followed by China and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. After the decision of Ministry of Finance to nullify

merchant discount rate A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments in multiple ways, typically debit or credit cards. A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for ...

(MDR) in 2019 from UPI, the number of low value transactions skyrocketed making huge gains on real-time transaction volume data. Nations such as

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and a ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

are now trying to emulate the success of UPI in their own market. From January 1, 2019, UPI became a popular payment option for

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

s (IPOs). The transaction limit was enhanced from ₹ to ₹ in March 2020. From December 2021, RBI again increased the limit to ₹ for Retail Direct Scheme and IPO applications. To make UPI economically feasible for payment companies, RBI is considering

(MDR) on future UPI transactions. In its first monetary policy for financial year 2022–23, RBI proposed cardless cash withdrawal facility from ATM using UPI based QR code. In partnership with NSDL Payments Bank and NPCI, ToneTag launched VoiceSE which will enable 40 crore feature phone users to make UPI payment using voice in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali languages.

UPI 2.0

On 16 August 2018, UPI 2.0 was launched which enabled users to link their

overdraft An overdraft occurs when something is withdrawn in excess of what is in a current account. For financial systems, this can be funds in a bank account. For water resources, it can be groundwater in an aquifer. In these situations the account is s ...

accounts to a UPI handle. Users were also able to pre-authorise transactions by issuing a mandate for specific merchant. This version also included a feature to view and store the invoice for the transactions. An AutoPay facility for recurring payments was also added. As of August 2021,

State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 49th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the '' Fort ...

Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, ...

and Paytm Payment Bank are live on UPI AutoPay each registering , , and mandates, respectively. From 15 March 2022, Government removed the need of debit card for UPI registration. NPCI is planning to expand AutoPay to international markets and operationalize real-time payment dispute resolution mechanism covering 90% of the complaints by September 2022. From 8 June 2022, RBI allowed linking RuPay credit cards with UPI. Customers can now make credit card payments using UPI, in the absence of a physical card. NPCI is working on a real-time feature that will reduce the 24 hours time period taken by banks to unblock funds over time-out or transaction decline to 30 seconds. The service was officially launched on 20 September 2022. On 7 December 2022, RBI announced that UPI will upgrade from single-block-single to single-block-multiple debit for recurring transactions and investments in securities. The feature will help the user block funds for specific purpose and release it when needed.

UPI 123PAY

As part of financial inclusion initiative, NPCI with fintech

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

Naffa Innovations with their product ToneTag in 2021 started working on developing a voice-based payment service for feature phone users in low connectivity zones over UPI payment ecosystem under

Interactive Voice Response Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows telephone users to interact with a computer-operated telephone system through the use of voice and DTMF tones input with a keypad. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interac ...

(IVR) project. The system will use Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signalling technology with two-factor authentication (2FA) flow for

(P2P) transaction. From September 2020 to June 2021, it was under

beta testing Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...

while awaiting RBI approval for large scale deployment. The beta testing and

pilot experiment A pilot study, pilot project, pilot test, or pilot experiment is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research pr ...

was completed by October 2021 and RBI started formulating guidelines for nationwide use. RBI governor,

Shaktikanta Das Shaktikanta Das (born 26 February 1957) is serving as the current & 25th List of Governors of Reserve Bank of India, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He was earlier a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, FifteenthFinance Commi ...

launched the service called UPI 123PAY on 8 March 2022, with an aim to help almost 40 crore (400 million) feature phone users in the country. Till now, UPI payments were only possible through payment applications on smartphones and USSD-based service for

feature phone A feature phone (also spelled featurephone) is a type or class of mobile phone that retains the form factor of earlier generations of mobile telephones, typically with press-button based inputs and a small non-touch display. They tend to use an ...

s. But as per deputy governor T Rabi Shankar the latter has been found to be cumbersome due to the unavailability of the services on several mobile networks. UPI 123PAY has four options for payment. # App based functionality where a mobile phone manufacturer can install UPI app through over-the-air programming, that can be used for payment. # Missed called based in which customer can use dedicated merchant payment number by giving a missed call. The incoming authentication call will ask for PIN verification to complete the transaction. # Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based where the payment transaction will complete using pre-defined phone numbers. # Payment in offline mode through sound based proximity data communication. As per NPCI, some of the early use cases involve FASTag recharges, insurance payments, and EMI collections. As of 20 September 2022, Ultracash Technologies in collaboration with

Bharat Petroleum Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It operates three refineries in Bina, Kochi and Mumbai. BPCL is ...

helped 200,000 active users make LPG booking and payment through UPI 123PAY.

Internationalization

Around 777 million Indian consumers shop across the border in 2021. To make ease of payment, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK based PPRO Financial on 17 November 2021 to expand the acceptance of UPI into foreign markets especially in China and United States which accounts for half of all international transaction coming from India. On 26 January 2022, UK based fintech startup Transact365 enabled UPI for global merchants with real time currency conversion facility that will help them do business in India independent of local presence. As per NPCI and RBI mandate, banks, payment service providers (PSPs) and third-party application providers (TPAPs) in India must enable international acceptance through UPI from 30 September 2022. With the release of Payments Vision 2025 document on 17 June 2022, RBI will push for internationalization of UPI with nations using

United States dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

Pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...

and

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

under bilateral treaties. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also actively pushing for internationalization of UPI due to geopolitical concerns. But several countries including Canada are reluctant to accept UPI due to push back from American firms. MEA is looking for Central Bank to Central Bank transfer using UPI as the pipeline and a collaborative effort if the countries have a similar system like UPI. On 12 October 2022, India offered UPI and related technologies to

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the C ...

Remittance

Due to increasing remittances to India, NIPL with

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

is going to integrate UPI to help the

Indian diaspora Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...

receive and send money abroad with ease. The service will become operational from second quarter of 2022. IndusInd Bank and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

based financial service provider DeeMoney will use UPI ID to verify customers in India for cross border transaction. This is part of Money Transfer Operator (MTO) partners programme of NPCI. IndusInd Bank is planning to collaborate with more foreign entities to increase acceptability of UPI abroad. NIPL on 27 January 2022 signed MoU with

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

based Terra Payment Services that will help UPI users receive international payments from around the globe in real time. To save the cost borne by Indians living abroad when sending money back home, NPCI is planning to move 32 million

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

population from SWIFT to UPI. The

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. A ...

and removal of Russian banks from SWIFT made development of an alternative all the more important for Indian policy makers.

Service

For real-time payments from one bank account to another, any UPI client app can be used and multiple bank accounts can be linked to a single app. Money can be sent or requested using a user-created Virtual Payment Address (VPA) or UPI ID for each bank account using the KYC-linked mobile number. UPI also generates a specific QR code for each user account for

contactless payments Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung P ...

Mobile apps

Any UPI app can be used to transfer funds from and to UPI enabled banks. Apart from various third-party apps such as Google Pay (previously Tez), PhonePe, Paytm, MobiKwik, Amazon Pay,

Samsung Pay Samsung Pay (stylized as SΛMSUNG Pay) is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Samsung Electronics that lets users make payments using compatible phones and other Samsung-produced devices. The service supports contactless payments usin ...

, WhatsApp Pay, NPCI manages its own app,

BHIM BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is an Indian mobile payment app developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Launched on 30 December 2016, it is intended to facilitate e-pa ...

. The total number of banks linked to UPI platform grew from 21 in April 2016 to 304 in February 2022. In June 2021, NPCI removed the restriction placed on

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows use ...

on UPI customer onboarding which until then was limited to 20 million users. With 530 million registered users in the Indian market, WhatsApp could then roll out UPI to all its customers.

On-Device wallet

NPCI called this feature UPI Lite. It can scan QR code without the need of an internet connection. In phase 1, UPI Lite will process the debit transaction offline while the credit will happen when the device goes online. But the final goal is to achieve both credit and debit transaction through offline mode. The upper limit of UPI Lite On-Device wallet is ₹2,000. Additional factor authentication or UPI AutoPay feature will be used to securely load the desirable amount. Since 50% of UPI transactions are below ₹200 with a higher frequency rate, it creates a large backlog of volume which increases the failure rate and affects the stability of the entire payment network. To save electricity consumption and computing power of banks, UPI mobile apps will have to support on-device wallet features as per the RBI directive from December 2021. The in-built wallet will help in low-value instant payment by using the infrastructure of the mobile app developer, thus decreasing the load on banks through decentralization of back-end infrastructure and resources. On September 20, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das officially launched UPI Lite at Global Fintech Fest 2022.

Canara Bank Canara Bank is an Indian public sector bank under the control and ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Established in 1906 at Mangalore by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, the bank also has offices in London, Dubai and New York. His ...

HDFC Bank HDFC Bank Limited (also known as HDB) is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's largest private sector bank by assets and world's 10th largest bank by market capitalisation . It is the third la ...

, Indian Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank,

, Union Bank of India and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank enabled UPI Lite feature on

Supported banks

The NPCI website lists the banks that facilitate UPI, termed as Payment Service Providers (PSP) – listed with their UPI application and handle – and issuers. PSP includes banks which have their own mobile application to facilitate transaction and issuers include banks which don't have their own payments interface and rely on third-party software for transactions.

e-RUPI

e-RUPI or e₹UPI ''(portmanteau of electronic Rupee and UPI)'' developed in collaboration with Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Health Authority. It was introduced from 2 August 2021. e-RUPI is to ensure leak proof delivery of welfare services and bypassing middle man to decrease corruption. Private sector can use the service for their own

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

initiative (CSR). e-RUPI is basically e-voucher based on

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about t ...

or SMS string that can be delivered through mobile phone. e-RUPI will act as a precursor for future

Central bank digital currency A central bank digital currency (CBDC) (also called digital fiat currency or digital base money) is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank. A report by the Bank for International Settlements states that, ...

(CBDC) that will be launched by RBI as it will help in highlighting the gaps within the national digital payment infrastructure. Financial Software and Systems (FSS) integrated e-RUPI on 1 December 2021 for financially underserved segments of the society.

Government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as, GoK, or simply Karnataka Government, is a democratically-elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka. The governor who is appoint ...

partnered with NPCI to provide student scholarship through e-RUPI which can even be received on

Market share

From 93,000 transactions in August 2016 valued at ₹30 million, UPI generated 800 million transactions in March 2019 with a total value of ₹1330 billion. In June 2021, UPI recorded 1.94 million IPO mandates that increased to 7.66 million in July. This was the highest ever since UPI was made mandatory by

Securities and Exchange Board of India The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the Regulatory agency, regulatory body for securities and commodity market in India under the ownership of Ministry of Finance (India), Ministry of Finance within the Government of India. It w ...

for domestic retail investors for IPO process. By late August 2020, with 18 billion annual transactions, UPI surpassed

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation specialized in payment card industry, payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Man ...

in India.

NITI Aayog The NITI Aayog (; abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative ...

predicted that UPI will also surpass Visa and Mastercard by 2023. UPI took three years to reach 1.14 billion in October 2019 while by the end of October 2020, the payment system registered 2.07 billion transactions. In 2020, $457 billion worth of value was moved on UPI platform which was 15% of India's GDP. As of July 2021, UPI registered 43.25 crore (432.5 million) transactions that accounted for ₹56,734.5 crore with highest average daily transaction of approximately 100 million that is double the amount from July 2020. As of August 2021, UPI forms 10% of all retail payment in India. PhonePe and Google Pay both recorded 1 billion transactions in August with a market share of 45.94% and 34.45% respectively in the UPI payment ecosystem while Paytm took 11.94% share with ₹387.85 million transaction. From the financial year 2015–21, the domestic retail payment by value on UPI grew at 18% at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) while between 2017 and 2021, the collective payment on all forms of UPI grew at 400% CAGR. In the financial year 2021, ₹41 trillion (

short scale The long and short scales are two of several naming systems for integer powers of ten which use some of the same terms for different magnitudes. For whole numbers smaller than 1,000,000,000 (109), such as one thousand or one million, the ...

) worth of money was exchanged on the UPI platform that is 2.8 times the value of debit and credit card payment at

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

(POS) terminals and 20 times the value of digital wallet and prepaid instruments in India. UPI registered 355 crore (3.55 billion) transactions in August 2021, a growth of 9.56% from the previous month. In terms of value, ₹6.39 lakh crore worth of money was transacted in August alone. From ₹3.2 lakh crore to ₹6 lakh crore, the growth in value terms doubled between September 2020 to July 2021. It had reached an all-time high of 3.65 billion transactions worth ₹6.54 lakh crore in value since inception in the month of September. By now the total transaction for the year 2021, reached ₹50 lakh crore. UPI touched value of ₹7.71 lakh crore in October 2021 which is a 56% jump from September. As per NPCI, daily UPI payment for the month of October is between ₹25,000 crore to ₹30,000 crore. Out of all UPI transactions done in the month of October, 54% are Person-to-Person (P2P) while 46% were Person-to-Merchant (P2M). UPI reached $844 billion in value until November 2021. In December, the total transaction value on UPI reached ₹8.27 lakh crore with 99% annual growth rate. The largest share in $2 trillion of annual digital payment in India comes from UPI. The Q2 of 2022 saw 20.57 billion transactions worth ₹36.08 trillion as per Worldline SA. P2P accounted for 49% in volume and 67% in value while P2M accounted for 34% in volume and 17% in value. As per CEO Dilip Asbe of NPCI, P2M as of November 2022 accounts for more than 50% of UPI transaction volumes. *''Data upto May 2022, source -

NPCI The National Payments Corporation of India is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of ...

portal'' ~''this data excludes the transactions having debit/credit to the same account for the month of August 2018 onwards''

App Wise Market Share

Market cap

On 26 March 2021, NPCI defined standard operating procedure for third-party payment providers on 30% market cap. The limit will be calculated on the basis of total volume of transactions processed over UPI during the preceding three months on a rolling basis starting from 1 January 2021. Compliance deadline is until December 2023. NPCI will push first alert through an email or a letter to third-party payment providers and their partner banks when UPI transactions hits 25-27% threshold which payment providers must acknowledge. In return, payment providers will send second alert to NPCI with evidence on the steps taken for compliance. In case 30% mark is breached, payment providers and banks must stop new user on-boarding. In special cases, payment providers and banks may get an exemption of 6 months for compliance. The report of breaching 30% market cap must reach NPCI within first five working days with plan for corrective measures. During the same period, payment providers and banks must inform new customers about the issue. Non compliance of market cap bring penalties under UPI procedural guidelines. NPCI will check operating procedures of UPI every 6 months to meet objectives without creating inconvenience for end users. PhonePe made a formal request to NPCI to defer 30% market cap deadline from January 2023 to January 2026. NPCI is discussing this issue with RBI and Government. Industry stakeholders want to do away with 30% market cap proposed by NPCI, instead want organic growth based on customer demand. Implementation is another contentious issue since it results in blocking existing users from performing payment to maintain 30% market cap which is not feasible from business point of view. RBI also started looking for solutions to fix the duopoly situation created by Google Pay and PhonePe. Both the players will get two additional years till 31 December 2024 to fix their market cap.

Acceptance

Domestic

India

There are talks happening to operate UPI in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore which has sizeable Indian expatriates and for ease of payment for Indian tourists travelling abroad. Committee on digital payments led by Nandan Nilekani had suggested that NPCI should internationalise payment services like UPI, RuPay and

. NPCI is planning to link UPI with standalone mobile wallets so that users can transfer money from one provider to another one which until now is restricted due to use of closed source technology. There is also provision for off-line UPI payment through the use of near field communication (NFC). From 5 September 2019, Play Store enabled UPI for purchasing apps, games and in-app content. On 20 April 2020, Google added support for UPI payment in India to buy membership of YouTube Premium and YouTube Music either directly through a website or on the mobile application. Now Indian users can also buy or rent movies from Google TV. UPI is also enabled for the YouTube SuperChat feature. From July 2021,

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

iPhone,

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...

, and

IPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a musi ...

users in India can use UPI on

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

and

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

. NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) was planning to extend UPI to markets in the United States, West Asia and Europe. On 4 August 2021,

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited is a life insurance company in India. Established as a joint venture between ICICI Bank Limited and Prudential Corporation Holdings Limited, ICICI Prudential Life is engaged in life insurance a ...

started supporting UPI AutoPay feature for insurance payment. In August 2021, Dish TV introduced UPI scan and pay feature for the first time in a nationwide rollout due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

restriction and heavy demand for no contact digital payment solutions. From 31 August 2021,

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

integrated UPI AutoPay feature for Indian subscribers which was until now limited to credit and debit cards from Visa, Mastercard,

, and

Diners Club International Diners Club International (DCI), founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company owned by Discover Financial Services. Formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider, Matty Simmons, and Alfred S. Bloomingdale, it was the first independent ...

. As per April 2021 RBI Monetary Policy Committee directive, after March 31, 2022, all the know you customer (KYC) compliant digital wallets will become interoperable by using UPI system. In August 2021, Hotstar started supporting UPI AutoPay feature.

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the sec ...

, Times Prime,

PayU PayU is a Netherlands-based payment service provider to online merchants. The company was founded in 2002, and is headquartered in Hoofddorp. It allows online businesses to accept and process payments through payment methods that can be integrate ...

, Financial Software and Systems, Testbook Edu Solutions, Open Financial Technologies,

Angel Broking Angel One Limited, formerly known as Angel Broking Limited, is an Indian stockbroker firm established in 1996. The company is a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of India, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchang ...

and 5Paisa Capital moved to UPI AutoPay in September 2021. Due to high usage,

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, acc ...

integrated UPI

barcode scanner A barcode reader is an optical scanner that can read printed barcodes, decode the data contained in the barcode to a computer. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor for translating optical impulses int ...

directly into mobile camera application for faster payment. On 3 January 2022,

SonyLIV SonyLIV is an Indian Over-the-top media services, over-the-top freemium Streaming media, streaming platform owned by Culver Max Entertainment. SonyLIV was introduced in 2013 as the first Over-the-top media service, OTT service in India. As a s ...

launched UPI AutoPay for all its subscribers. NPCI with Jio introduced UPI AutoPay for prepaid and postpaid mobile subscribers from 6 January 2022. Tata Mutual Fund with CAMSPay enabled UPI AutoPay feature for Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) from July 2022.

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

started supporting UPI AutoPay for subscription services from 15 November 2022. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will start UPI based ticketing system from 2023.

International

Cross border digital payment service provider Liquid Group signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NIPL in September 2021 to introduce UPI based

payment system in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

, and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

from 2022. NIPL signed MoU with Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) on 8 March 2022 to link UPI with Buna Payment Platform that is connected with the central banks and financial institutions from Arab region. This will help in cross border multi currency transaction. Till 4 July 2022, India already initiated talks with 30 countries for UPI integration.

Singapore

UPI is accepted at merchant locations to ease transaction experience of Indian tourists. The

(RBI) and

Monetary Authority of Singapore The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is the central bank and financial regulatory authority of Singapore. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as well ...

(MAS) will operationalise interoperability between UPI and PayNow from July, 2022. Technical preparations on interoperability are complete as of November 2022. The system is now waiting for an official rollout. The same channel in future will help connect Indian and

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, milita ...

economies.

Bhutan

On 13 July 2021, UPI made available to Bhutan through

Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan ( dz, བྲུག་རྒྱལ་གཞུང་དངུལ་ལས་དབང་འཛིན་) is the central bank of Bhutan and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is also the minting aut ...

. Bhutan became the first country to accept UPI transactions through the BHIM app.

Malaysia

In 2021, Malaysian company

Merchantrade Asia Merchantrade Asia (Merchantrade) is a Money Services Business (MSB), Digital Payment Service (Issuing and Acquiring) and Mobile Virtual Network operator (MVNO) provider, based in Malaysia. The company’s core business is centered on internation ...

partnered with NIPL to send remittance in India through UPI infrastructure.

United Arab Emirates

LuLu Financial Holding, a subsidiary of

LuLu Group International LuLu Group International is an Indian Emirati-based multinational conglomerate company that operates a chain of hypermarkets and retail companies, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was founded in 2000 by M. A. Yusuff Ali from ...

signed MoU with NIPL in August 2021, to offer real time remittance to India from

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

(UAE) and the Middle Eastern region.The MoU will help LuLu Financial Holding and its affiliates to connect with the UPI infrastructure and help in validation, compliance checks and facilitate all the requisite protocols for a safer cross border monetary transaction. NIPL tied up with

Mashreq bank Mashreqbank PSC (Arabic: ''Orient Bank'') is the oldest privately owned bank in the United Arab Emirates. It was founded as the Bank of Oman in 1967. Today Mashreq provides conventional and Islamic personal banking services including deposits, l ...

in 2021 to increase UPI person-to-person (P2P) and person to merchant (P2M) transactions in UAE.

Network International Network International Holdings provides technology-enabled payments solutions to merchants and financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The ...

on 18 November 2021 signed MoU with NIPL for acceptance of UPI in UAE through its network. Merchants under Network International will able to accept UPI payment from Q1 2022. On 21 April 2022, UPI went live and started accepting payment through NeoPay, a payment subsidiary of Mashreq bank.

Nepal

On 17 February 2022, NIPL announced that it will deploy UPI in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

for person to person (P2P), person to merchant (P2M) and to enable cross border remittances with India in collaboration with Nepal's Manam Infotech and Gateway Payments Service.

France

NIPL signed MoU with French payment company Lyra Network, that will allow Indian tourists and students make payment using UPI in France.

United Kingdom

All POS terminals in UK under payment solution provider PayXpert will enable UPI based QR code payment in partnership with NIPL.

Russia

India and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

expressed interest in continuing dialogue on accepting UPI and Faster Payments System (FPS) of

Central Bank of Russia The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR; ), doing business as the Bank of Russia (russian: Банк России}), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. The predecessor of the bank can ...

within their respective national payment infrastructures. As of August 2022, both nations started working on interaction between UPI and FPS.

Oman

NPCI signed MoU with Central Bank of Oman on 4 October 2022 to connect UPI with similar system in Oman on a reciprocal basis. It will make UPI QR code based payment available in the country and make it easier for Indian diaspora to send their remittance money in a cost effective way.

Europe

As per MoU signed on 11 October 2022, Worldline SA will enable European merchants POS terminal to accept UPI. The payment will be facilitated through Worldline QR code. The initial market expansion will start with

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, the

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Future market

Australia

During a bilateral virtual summit on 21 March 2022, India proposed early integration of UPI with Australian New Payment Platform to improve higher education access and tourism potential.

Thailand

Bank of Thailand The Bank of Thailand (BOT) ( Abrv: ธปท.; th, ธนาคารแห่งประเทศไทย, ) is the central bank of Thailand. History The Bank of Thailand (BOT) was first set up as the Thai National Banking Bureau. The Bank ...

is planning cross-border remittances and QR based payment with India.

Saudi Arabia

During a meeting with Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi on 19 September 2022, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal discussed on introducing UPI in the country. Operationalization of UPI is one of the priority area in bilateral Fintech collaboration.

United States

The Clearing House The Clearing House is a banking association and payments company owned by the largest commercial banks in the United States. The Clearing House is the parent organization of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., which owns and operates core ...

is working with EBA Clearing and SWIFT for real-time USD-Euro payment called Immediate Cross-Border (IXB) that may launch in 2023. There are talks of payment corridor between IXB and UPI.

References

{{Banking in India 2016 establishments in India Payment interchange standards Interbank networks Reserve Bank of India Banking in India Financial services companies based in Mumbai Mobile payments Mobile payments in India

History

UPI 2.0

UPI 123PAY

Internationalization

Remittance

Service

Mobile apps

On-Device wallet

Supported banks

e-RUPI

Market share

App Wise Market Share

Market cap

Acceptance

Domestic

India

International

Singapore

Bhutan

Malaysia

United Arab Emirates

Nepal

France

United Kingdom

Russia

Oman

Europe

Future market

Australia

Thailand

Saudi Arabia

United States

See also

References