IMF lists India’s UPI as world’s largest real-time payment system

New Delhi: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recognised India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as the world’s largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply to a question, that this fact has been highlighted in the IMF’s report on ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)’ dated June 2025.

Further, as per the ACI Worldwide report on ‘Prime Time for Real-Time’ 2024, UPI tops the global list with a 49 per cent share in the global real-time payment system and a transaction volume of 129.3 billion. Brazil is placed in the second position with a market share of 14 per cent and a transaction volume of 37.4 per cent, followed by Thailand in the third spot with a market share of 8 per cent and a transaction volume of 20.4 billion. China figures in the fourth place with a market share of 6 per cent and transaction volume of 17.2 billion.

The minister further stated that in order to support small-scale merchants in adopting digital payment systems, including UPI, various initiatives have been taken up by the government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) from time to time. These, inter alia, include an 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 centres.

As of October 31, 2025, approximately 5.45 crore digital touch points have been deployed through PIDF in tier-3 to 6 centres. Further, as of FY 2024-25, a total of 56.86 crore QR were deployed to approximately 6.5 crore merchants, the minister said.

The Government, the RBI, and the NPCI have initiated deepening digital transactions through RuPay and UPI across businesses, including public services, transport, and e-commerce platforms on a nationwide basis, he added.

IANS