A comprehensive and open digital public-good infrastructure serves as the backbone for one of the world’s most interesting markets for new payment ideas
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the instant payment system built and backed by the Indian state, is the foundation upon which one of the world’s most vibrant digital payments industries has been built. Innovation continues here at pace, creating a compelling opportunity for providers and customers.
The UPI is open architecture, fully interoperable and free to access. UPI was designed to enable interoperability between money custodians, payment rails and front-end payment applications. This means barriers to entry are low, encouraging not only banks but also fintechs to participate in the development of payment architecture.
The result is the most active digital payments market in the world: the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) logs ten billion digital payment transactions a month through UPI, and seeks to reach 100 billion transactions a month. It is also a market in a constant state of evolution.