India has recently made a technological leap with the implementation of UPI payments. UPI, or Unified Payments Interface, is an India-specific system that has revolutionized the country’s financial payment structure. With this system, users can use a single app to make payments in an instant and secure manner. India’s National Payments Corporation provides it with RuPay – India’s version of credit and debit cards – which also lets you send money to any bank account in India.
India is continuing to push and drive awareness for its homegrown payments network and will spend $318.4 million to promote RuPay and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), according to TechCrunch.
Many consumers in India have come to accept and adopt UPI payments. In fact, data from the National Payments Corporation of India found that there were roughly 7.8 billion UPI payments in December 2022. To put into perspective how much volume has grown, a year prior there were roughly 4.56 billion UPI payments.
But while consumers and merchants have embraced India’s homegrown payments network, RuPay and UPI, large banks aren’t fully on board.
As noted in TechCrunch:
The Narendra Modi-led government’s move is an attempt to assuage the concerns of banks that have questioned the financial viability of the UPI network. UPI, a six-year-old payments network built by a coalition of banks, has become the most popular way Indians transact online today. The payments service fetches money directly from banks, removing the reliance on any intermediary. But it operates on zero merchant discount rate, tiny fees on transactions that is one of the main sources of income for banks and card companies.
Perhaps this recent push from the Indian government will help drive engagement with large banks and continue to encourage digital payments adoption.
