UPI set to topple Mastercard as the Indian payment system rockets towards global dominance

60-70% of IPOs are done through UPI; set to surpass Mastercard's daily transactions soon

With India’s IPO market experiencing a surge driven by robust retail investor demand, a significant portion of applications, up to 70%, are now being submitted through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), according to Dilip Asbe, Managing Director and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The NPCI oversees UPI, the nation’s most widely used mobile-based digital payments platform.

Addressing the Global Tech Summit hosted by Carnegie, an international relations think tank, Asbe further revealed that India is engaged in discussions with over 50 countries to assist them in developing their own domestic digital payment systems akin to UPI. This signifies the growing global recognition and potential of India’s innovative digital payment infrastructure.

He further said, “I believe the definition of digital public infrastructure (DPI) is going to vary from country to country. A decision has to be taken by them that we need democratisation of payments and DPI has to be well regulated with an ecosystem approach.”

In the nation, there exist upwards of 120 million demat accounts, a number significantly surpassing the estimated 50-60 million distinct credit card users. Concurrently, the count of UPI users exceeds a staggering 350 million. Notably, a substantial portion of retail investors engaging through digital investment platforms like Zerodha, Groww, Angel One, and others prefer utilising the UPI channel for IPO applications.

The UPI stands as the globe’s preeminent instant mobile payments platform, with a remarkable monthly record of over 11 billion transactions and a transactional value surpassing Rs 17 lakh crore.

He also stated, “We also started an international subsidiary (NIPL)and are talking to regulators worldwide. We are allowing access to UPI source code… Countries will have their solution providers work on this. The adoption by various countries will also open up government-to-government and regulator-to-regulator dialogues.”

Despite facing established global giants like Visa and Mastercard, NPCI’s UPI has emerged as a remarkable success story. While Visa processes an average of 750 million transactions daily, UPI has already reached 340 million, with projections to surpass Mastercard’s daily volume of 440 million soon.

This is particularly impressive considering the shorter timeframe of UPI’s operation (less than eight years) compared to the decades-long existence of these global players established in over 200 countries, many significantly wealthier than India. This achievement highlights the remarkable potential and rapid growth of India’s digital payment infrastructure, represented by UPI.