NPCI and UPI Dominance
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) oversees nearly half of global digital transactions, largely through its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform, with its reach continuously expanding.
According to India Today, there were over 20 billion UPI transactions in August alone—surpassing Brazil’s real-time payments system, Pix, which processed about 6 billion monthly transactions last year. Overall, UPI now handles more daily transactions than Visa’s global network and China’s Alipay super app.
A key factor behind UPI’s rapid growth is the robust strategy implemented by India’s officials. The platform has secured partnerships with prominent players such as Google and PayPal while continuously enhancing its functionalities.
Interoperable and Global Expansion
UPI is now accepted in various forms across France, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Singapore. The latest expansion comes through a partnership with Qatar National Bank (QNB), enabling UPI acceptance at point-of-sale terminals operated by QNB-acquired merchants.
This partnership allows travelers from India—to the second-largest group of foreign tourists in Qatar—to pay using UPI at major tourist attractions and Qatar Duty Free outlets, marking the first merchant to go live on the platform.
The move represents UPI’s ongoing strategy with the ultimate goal of creating a truly interoperable global payment network.
Moderate Reception Abroad
Although real-time payments have seen significant growth in regions like India and Brazil, they have received a more moderate response in the United States. Both RTP and FedNow have made strides since their inception but still process only a fraction of UPI’s volume.
The primary challenge to broader adoption is that these networks are largely receive-only, not fully suitable for widespread merchant applications. While it’s common for users to scan QR codes using UPI to purchase everyday items in India, the use cases for FedNow and RTP have primarily been limited to business-to-business transactions.
