UPI emerges global leader in digital payments with over 18 bn transactions and Rs24 lakh core turnover in June

India’s online payment platform, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has emerged a global leader in digital transactions with 18.39 billion transactions involving Rs24 lakh crore of online payments in June 2025 alone, according to a report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

UPI now powers 85 per cent of India’s digital transactions and nearly 50 per cent of global transactions. With 640 million daily transactions, UPI is also ahead of the global payments system Visa, says the IMF report, titled ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability.’

Launched by the National Payments Corporation of India, an arm of the Reserve Bank of India, in 2016, UPI has received nationwide acceptance, with even the roadside vendor embracing the QR code-based payment system, because of its convenience and safety.

UPI helps by aggregating all of one’s bank accounts in the BHIM UPI mobile app, so that money can be transferred instantly to anyone with a bank account. This has resulted in an increasing shift away from the cash-based and card-based transactions. 

The beauty of the digital payment system is that it is easier than cash transactions that may involve problems related to cash of lower or higher denominations. Also, card transactions often involve both withdrawal and payment while UPI is a one point transaction that combines withdrawal and transfer of money.

It has also helped to make financial transactions safer and cheaper for small businesses besides making the banking system more accessible to millions of people who were outside the banking system so far. 

The UPI system now inter-connects 675 banks enabling 491 million people and 65 million merchants on a single payments platform.

UPI’s extraordinary performance in just over nine years points to India’s steady move towards a cashless economy.