India has emerged as the global leader in fast payments, according to the International Monetary Fund’s report titled ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability’.

India’s leadership in real-time payments is no accident. It reflects years of bold digital groundwork and a vision to use technology for inclusive growth.

Advertisement

UPI is no longer just a payment system. It is a global benchmark for innovation in public digital infrastructure.

The scale of UPI today is remarkable. In June 2025 alone, it processed over Rs 24.03 lakh crore across 18.39 billion transactions. That’s a 32% increase from the 13.88 billion transactions recorded in the same month last year — clear evidence of sustained growth, an official release said.

The UPI system now serves 491 million individuals and 65 million merchants. It connects 675 banks on a single platform, allowing people to make payments easily without worrying about which bank they use.

Today, UPI accounts for 85 per cent of digital transactions in India. Its impact extends beyond national borders, powering nearly 50 per cent of global real-time digital payments.

These figures show more than just numbers. They reflect trust, convenience, and speed. Every month, more individuals and businesses choose UPI for their payments. This growing use is a strong sign that India is moving steadily towards a cashless economy.

India’s Unified Payments Interface is also now the world’s number one real-time payment system. At the heart of this transformation is the Unified Payments Interface, better known as UPI.

Launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India, UPI has transformed the way people send and receive money across the country.

It brings all your bank accounts together in a single mobile app, allowing you to transfer money instantly, pay merchants, or send funds to friends with just a few taps.

Its appeal lies in its speed and ease of use.

Today, UPI processes over 18 billion transactions every month in India, according to the official document.

This shift has taken India away from cash and card-based payments and pushed it towards a digital-first economy.

Millions of individuals and small businesses now rely on UPI for safe and low-cost transactions. By making payments quick and accessible, UPI has become a powerful tool for financial inclusion.

It has surpassed Visa to take the lead in processing daily transactions.

UPI handles more than 640 million transactions every day, compared to Visa’s 639 million. This scale is extraordinary, especially when you consider that UPI achieved it in just nine years.

UPI accounts for almost 50 per cent of transactions globally. This shows the strength of an open and interoperable system built for speed and simplicity, it added.

The success story does not stop at home as UPI is making its presence felt across borders. It is already live in seven countries, including the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, and Mauritius. Its entry into France is a milestone because it is UPI’s first step into Europe. This allows Indians travelling or living there to pay seamlessly without the usual hassles of foreign transactions.

India is also pushing for UPI to become a standard within the BRICS group, which now has six new member nations.

Before UPI, digital payments in India were limited by closed-loop systems. A closed-loop system is one where transactions can only happen within the same platform. For example, a wallet app allowed transfers between its own users but not to someone using a different wallet.

Similarly, while the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) allowed people to transfer money between banks, it did not support transfers through third-party apps.

UPI changed this. It connected banks and fintech apps through a common platform. Now, a user can pick any UPI-enabled app and pay someone using another app, without worrying about which bank they use. This is true interoperability in action.

This openness has two big benefits. First, users have the freedom to choose their favourite app, based on trust or ease of use. Second, it creates healthy competition among providers to offer better features and security. As more apps join and improve, people get more choices and better services. This has helped UPI grow quickly and become part of everyday life for millions.