IMF: India Leads in Fast Payments in World in June 2025 with UPI

According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), titled "Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability," released on July 20, 2025, India has emerged as a global leader in fast payment systems, courtesy of its indigenously developed  Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system. 

The UPI is an instant,24x7 mobile-based payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

NPCI is owned by a consortium of banks that includes public sector, private sector and certain foreign banks operating in India.

UPI beats Visa to emerge as Global leader 

According to the IMF report, UPI processes more than 640 million transactions daily, while the American multinational giant Visa processes around 639 million transactions per day.

UPI processes around 85% of digital transactions in India and approximately 50% of real-time global digital payments worldwide.

The UPI processed payments of over Rs 24.03 lakh crore through 18.39 billion transactions in June 2025, registering a 32 % growth in the number of transactions compared to June 2024.

In June 2024, 13.88 billion transactions were recorded on UPI.

The indigenously developed UPI platform has  around 491 million individuals and 65 million merchants as users, connecting 675 banks in the country through a single unified system.

Fast Payment System In India 

There are two fast payment systems in India: the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

They are called fast payments because funds are transferred to the beneficiary bank account almost instantly, along with a fund transfer message. It is also available 24/7 and 365 days.

IMPS was introduced in India in November 2010.

The UPI is based on the IMPS platform, which went live in 2016 with enhanced security features. 

The UPI is a mobile-based fast payment system that supports person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments.

It can be used on smartphones (app-based), feature phones (USSD-based), and at merchant locations (app-based). 

The UPI can be accessed through apps like BHIM, Google Pay, Paytm, etc.

The current transaction limit is Rs one lakh per day with a higher transaction limit for certain transactions.

International use of UPI 

Considering the ease of use and its strong security features, the government of India is trying to export the UPI-based payment system. 

In 2020, NPCI set up a subsidiary company, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), to promote the indigenous, developed technologies like RuPay (a domestic card scheme) and UPI (a mobile payment solution) outside India.

In 2021, Bhutan became the first country to adopt the UPI system, and Nepal became the second country to adopt it in 2022.

The UPI is also live in UAE, Sri Lanka, France, Singapore and Mauritius.

During Prime Minister Modi's visit to Namibia, an agreement was signed between the two countries in which Namibia will adopt the UPI system for its domestic payment services.