Unified Payments Interface (UPI):
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments system has cut across the Indian socio-economic digital divide amazingly fast.
- Even though UPI is indeed a groundbreaking innovation in the digital payments landscape, reliability and security are still considered to be at stake, keeping many individuals and businesses apprehensive about the payment system.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI):
- It is an advanced version of Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)- round–the-clock funds transfer service to make cashless payments faster, easier and smoother.
- UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
- UPI is currently the biggest among the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operated systems including National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), RuPay etc.
- The top UPI apps today include PhonePe, Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and BHIM, the latter being the Government offering.
- As part of an agreement, India’s UPI will be linked to Singapore’s PayNow.
- NPCI launched UPI with 21 member banks in 2016.
