UPI Disruptions Not NPCI's Fault, Banks' Outdated Tech Is Responsible, Says RBI Guv

UPI customers around the country have recently been experiencing difficulties due to issues with digital payments. This disruption, which has impacted several banking services and UPI-enabled applications like as Google Pay, PhonePe, and BHIM, has reportedly caused significant inconvenience.

Also Read: 5 UPI Safety Tips For You To Ensure Protected Payments; Check Details Here

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees the UPI platform, is not the primary cause of the frequent disruptions in UPI payments, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das. Rather, it is the banks’ antiquated technology.

Governor Das recently underlined that the NPCI’s infrastructure is not to blame for the outage during a press conference that followed a policy meeting. Rather, the issues that need to be addressed come at the banks’ end, particularly with their networking linkages.

Failures in digital payments are becoming more common, causing financial hardship for banking customers. Notably, on June 4, many investors were unable to conduct transactions due to a market dip, resulting in missed financial possibilities.

Furthermore, UPI transactions reach 450 million per day, and according to NPCI data, banks faced 31 incidents of downtime in May 2024, causing payment gateways to be out for more than 47 hours.

All system disruptions, whether planned or unplanned, must be reported by regulated entities. The RBI has worked hard to limit these incidences, which have already dropped to less than one per cent.

As part of its ongoing efforts to improve digital payment reliability, the RBI has created UPI Lite, which handles 10 million transactions per month, to relieve pressure on bank systems.

On June 7, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the establishment of a digital payments intelligence platform in response to a recent rise in bank and digital fraud.

The panel will be chaired by Abhaya Hota, the first CEO of the NPCI, who was instrumental in transitioning India into a digital economy. Members of the panel would comprise members from the NPCI, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank.

The platform will specify the operational criteria and mechanisms that will govern the amount of data produced by reporting institutions such as banks and fintechs. The committee will be responsible for defining these parameters.