The International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)’ dated June 2025 had recognized Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as the world’s largest
retail fast-payment system (FPS) by transaction volume, as per PIB.
Further, as per ACI Worldwide report on ‘Prime Time for Real-Time’ 2024, UPI has around 49% share in the global real-time payment system transaction volume.
The growth in UPI as a primary mode for real-time payment came thanks to the initiatives by Government, RBI and NPCI, deepening digital transactions through RuPay and UPI across businesses including public services, transport and e-commerce platforms on a nationwide basis.
In order to support small scale merchants in adopting digital payment systems including UPI, various initiatives have been taken up by the Government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) from time to time.
These include incentive scheme for promotion of low value BHIM-UPI transactions, and the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) which provides grant support to the banks and fintechs for deployment of digital payment infrastructure (such as POS Terminals and QR codes) in tier-3 to 6 centers. As of October 31, 2025, approximately 5.45 crore digital touch points have been deployed through PIDF in tier-3 to 6 centers. Further, as of FY 2024-25, a total of 56.86 crore QR were deployed to approximately 6.5 crore merchants.
The IMF is a global financial institution that works to ensure economic stability across countries. It provides short-term loans to nations facing balance-of-payments problems, offers policy advice to help governments manage inflation, debt and growth, and conducts regular economic assessments of member countries.
UPI’s status against other leading international real-time payment platforms
| Countries |
Transaction Volume (in Billions) |
% Share of Global real-time payment platform |
| India | 129.3 | 49% |
| Brazil | 37.4 | 14% |
| Thailand | 20.4 | 8% |
| China | 17.2 | 6% |
| South Korea | 9.1 | 3% |
| Others | 52.8 | 20% |
| Total | 266.2 | 100% |
