Digital Payments

Cashfree Payments offers zero payment gateway fees to woo new merchants

Cashfree Payments will waive gateway fees on the first Rs 20 lakh of GMV for new merchants as it aims to double its SMB base to 2 million by the end of FY27

Banks live on UPI rise nearly fivefold to 731 between 2020 and 2026

UPI added 576 banks over six years as digital payments adoption widened, helping the platform process 22.71 billion transactions in June 2026

Digital payments boost fintech growth; wealth-tech leads profit pool

Sector's earnings jumped 22% in FY25 to ₹1.03 trillion

Will AI be making UPI payments for you now? Here's how it may work

NPCI is reportedly developing a Unified Agent Protocol (UAP), a proposed framework to verify and authorise AI agents within the UPI ecosystem.

PhonePe appoints Srijon Biswas as CTO; Rahul Chari takes expanded CPTO role

PhonePe has appointed Srijon Biswas as chief technology officer, while co-founder Rahul Chari assumes the expanded role of chief product and technology officer

PhonePe elevates Srijon Biswas as CTO, co-founder Chari to become CPTO

PhonePe on Wednesday announced the appointment of Srijon Biswas as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with immediate effect. Biswas, who has been with the fintech firm for nearly a decade and previously served as the Head of Engineering, will now lead PhonePe's entire engineering organisation. He will continue to report to PhonePe Co-founder Rahul Chari, the company said in a statement. As part of a broader evolution of leadership responsibilities, Chari, who previously served as the CTO, will assume the role of Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) while continuing in his capacity as co-founder. Chari's mandate already covered technology, product, trust and safety, and data sciences and analytics. He has recently added customer experience and artificial intelligence (AI) to his portfolio, alongside leading other strategic initiatives across the PhonePe Group. "As PhonePe continues to expand and grow, strengthening our technology leadership is a natural step. Srijon's ...

Visa says authentication must move beyond OTPs, launches Payment Passkey

Digital payment authentication must move beyond passwords and one-time passwords (OTPs) as artificial intelligence-driven commerce gathers pace, a top Visa official said on Thursday. "Authentication cannot remain dependent on passwords or one-time codes designed for an earlier digital era. It must become secured by design, invisible to the consumer, and resilient against increasingly sophisticated fraud," Suresh Sethi, group country manager for India and South Asia of Visa, said at a company event. The global payments major launched its 'Payment Passkey' solution in India on Thursday. The company said VPP enables consumers to authenticate online card payments using capabilities already built into their mobile devices, including fingerprint, facial recognition, device PIN or pattern, instead of relying solely on OTPs. This helps satisfy the two-factor authentication requirement applicable in India. Sethi said the solution is built on globally accepted FIDO standards and is designed

UPI volumes ease after record May; value falls to ₹28.92 trillion

Volumes decline 2% from May's record high, though both value and transaction count remain sharply higher than a year ago

BHIM Payments App transaction volumes treble in less than a year

The transaction volumes of the BHIM Payments App more than tripled between June 2025 and May 2026, according to NPCI BHIM Services Limited. Monthly transaction volumes on the app, developed by NPCI BHIM Services Limited, rose from 79.64 million in June 2025 to 244 million in May 2026, a release said on Wednesday. The platform processed transactions worth Rs 26,952 crore in May 2026, it said. In Telangana, BHIM's growth mirrors the broader national trend, with transaction volumes tripling between June 2025 and May 2026. In May 2026, groceries accounted for 23.9 per cent of merchant transactions on the platform in the state, followed by food outlets (18.1 per cent) and quick commerce (11.6 per cent). Lalitha Nataraj, MD and CEO of NBSL, said the strong growth of the BHIM Payments App in Telangana reflected the increasing integration of digital payments into everyday life. "What is particularly encouraging is that this growth is being driven by transactions across categories such as

WhatsApp to invest $900 mn in Kunal Shah's CRED: What does the app do?

The platform operates a members-only financial rewards programme that targets users with high credit scores and offers them rewards and discounts

For sophisticated financial inclusion: Looking beyond distribution, access

The rising proportion of citizens interacting across the financial landscape also bears witness to growing financial inclusion

India shouldn't look to West for agentic payment protocols: Pine Labs CEO

Pine Labs has launched an agentic payments protocol for UPI transactions, with CEO Amrish Rau calling for India-led standards in autonomous commerce

Mastercard expands value-added services push amid UPI dominance

The payments major is expanding into cybersecurity, analytics, AI and loyalty services as it seeks new growth avenues beyond its traditional payments network business

QR scams, fake apps, suspicious links: All about digital-payment safety

Never scan any QR code to receive money and don't install apps from random links

'Bharat Bluff' shows how trust became one of the weakest links online

Bharat Bluff is filled with first-person accounts of scams that allow readers to comprehend the gravity of India's scam economy beyond data

UPI expands international presence to Cambodia through KHQR linkage

Indian travellers can use UPI apps at over 4.5 million merchant outlets in Cambodia, while Cambodian visitors will gain access to UPI-enabled payments in India in the next phase

Why India's UPI boom has not stopped cash in circulation from rising

India's digital payments revolution is accelerating, but cash continues to grow as households and businesses use currency for savings, reserves and informal activity

UPI transactions scale fresh peak in May; value rises to ₹29.90 trillion

UPI transactions touched a record ₹29.90 trillion in May while volumes rose to an all-time high of 23.20 billion, underscoring the continued expansion of India's digital payments ecosystem.

'Strong preference' for cash use despite digital payments growth

Despite rapid growth in digital payments, RBI's survey found that households and small retailers continue to prefer cash, while currency in circulation rose strongly in FY26

RBI weighs adding 'frictions' to digital payments to tackle online fraud

Central bank is exploring transaction delays, broader customer controls and a kill switch mechanism as digital payment frauds continue to rise in value