NPCI discusses means to grow UPI ahead december market cap deadline

The National Payments Council of India (NPCI) has met several ecosystem players to discuss the steps needed to bolster the growth of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform.

The meeting is significant ahead of the December deadline set by NPCI before which no single player can have a market share of more than 30 per cent.

At present, Phonepe and Google Pay control 80 per cent of the UPI payments market.

The share could get skewed in favour of these players following the restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank, which has around 15 per cent market share.

NPCI owns and operates the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform.

“How the players can grow UPI,” a top source said when asked about the agenda of the meeting.

Sources said banks – who were also present in the meeting – were asked to beef up investments in technology.

As more banks increase their market share in UPI payments, the distribution of market share will become more even.

In a speech in December 2023, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Swaminathan Janakiraman, pulled up banks for not spending their IT budgets.

He said banks had to commit resources for augmenting their IT infrastructure commensurate with their business plans and also monitor them for their availability and stability.

UPI has been the biggest contributor to the growth of digital payments in India, with the share of UPI in digital payments having reached close to 80 per cent in 2023.

The volume of UPI transactions increased from Rs 43 crore in CY2017 to 11,761 crore in CY2023. UPI is processing close to 42 crore transactions daily.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said that even after gaining such a huge acceptance, there is considerable scope for expanding the use of digital payments in India.