Sankar said that the payments rails has the potential to expand to nearly 100 Cr customers, up from around 40 Cr active users currently
Financial services secretary M Nagaraju said that the government is working to expand the global reach of UPI to a larger number of countries, especially in East Asia
Launched in 2016, UPI has emerged as the backbone of India’s digital payments. The rails clocked a record 22,000 Cr transactions worth INR 299.76 Lakh Cr in 2025
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor T Rabi Sankar yesterday reportedly said that unified payments interface’s (UPI) user base could potentially cross 100 Cr in the coming years.
As per news agency PTI, Sankar said that the payments rails has the potential to expand to nearly 100 Cr customers, up from around 40 Cr active users today.
“The active users of UPI are about 400 Mn. We are targeting 1 Bn users. So…there is a lot of scope, there is a lot of distance that we need to travel,” Sankar reportedly said at the Global Inclusive Finance India Summit in New Delhi.
However, Sankar noted that per capita digital payment usage in India remains lower than advanced economies, indicating significant headroom for deeper penetration.
Noting that the expansion of digital payment had brought financial inclusivity, Sankar, quoting a study, said a 10% increase in online payment could lead to a 0.3% addition in gross domestic product (GDP).
At the same event, department of financial services secretary M Nagaraju reportedly said that the government is working to expand the global reach of UPI to a larger number of countries, especially in East Asia.
“Now we have expanded to some countries. We are trying to expand. To a large number of countries, especially we are focussing in East Asia now,” Nagaraju said as per PTI.
It is pertinent to note that UPI is currently accepted in eight countries, including Bhutan, Singapore, Qatar, Mauritius, Nepal, the UAE, Sri Lanka and France. However, UPI is largely available for Indian tourists looking to make digital payments for transactions overseas.
Launched in 2016, UPI has emerged as the backbone of India’s digital payments infrastructure. In 2025, UPI clocked record 22,000 Cr transactions worth INR 299.76 Lakh Cr.
To drive the next leg of adoption, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has rolled out UPI on feature phones via USSD-based services, a move aimed at bringing millions of offline users into the digital payments ecosystem.
Last year, the nodal body also debuted agentic AI payments, UPI Reserve Pay, smart glass payments and on-device biometric authentications.
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