10 years of UPI: How can it expand new frontiers for digital payments?
India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has seen massive growth over its ten-year history, becoming a global leader in real-time transaction volume. While it has successfully democratized digital payments, officials are now considering how to transition the platform from a zero-cost model to a sustainable financial structure.
Why it matters
UPI serves as a blueprint for digital public infrastructure in developing nations, and its shift toward monetization could impact millions of small merchants and users.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), celebrating its tenth anniversary in August this year, is unique in many ways as it democratised technology, altered consumers spending behaviour and elevated India’s position from a consumer of global payment technologies to an exporter of digital public infrastructure.
Launched in 2016 with 21 banks, UPI is an open-access platform built by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It now has over 700 lenders, daily processing about 66 crore transactions — a milestone recognised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
An ACI Worldwide report said India accounted for 129.3 billion real-time payment transactions or 49% of global volume, followed by Brazil with 37.4 billion transactions (14%), Thailand with 20.4 billion (8%), China with 17.2 billion (6%) and South Korea with 9.1 billion (3%).
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