New Delhi: UPI or Unified Payments Interface is a real-time payment system that enables instant money transfers between bank accounts via a mobile device. UPI offers instantaneous and round-the-clock money transfers, making it a faster mode of transaction. It allows transactions in a matter of seconds. Starting June 16, the process will become significantly faster. UPI has also finalised several significant changes which will be implemented after July, including balance checking and auto-payment mandate.
Improved customer experience
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees UPI, stated in a circular dated April 26, 2025, that they are working to enhance performance by lowering the response time of UPI transactions. According to the official release, the changes will benefit remitter banks, beneficiary banks and Payment Service Providers like PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.
“[The] Aforementioned revisions are intended to improve the customer experience. The members are required to ensure that they make the necessary changes in their system so that responses are handled within the revised time. If the members have any dependency/configuration changes at partner /merchant’s end, then the same also has to be taken care of accordingly,” NPCI said in the circular.
Other significant changes
A circular dated May 21, 2025, said that the UPI system is set to implement other important changes from August. “PSP banks and/or acquiring banks shall ensure all the API requests (in terms of velocity and TPS — transactions per second limitations) sent to UPI are monitored and moderated in terms of appropriate usage (customer-initiated and PSP system-initiated),” the circular said.
The set of guidelines included several significant changes, which are:
Balance checks capped at 50 times
According to the guidelines, UPI apps should limit balance enquiry requests to reduce the load in peak hours. The NPCI has set a daily cap of 50 apps per customer in 24 hours.
Account list access limited to 25 times
According to the guidelines, users will be able to check bank accounts linked to their mobile number only 25 times a day per app.
Autopay mandate execution
The NPCI has directed Initiator Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to commence UPI autopay executions at a moderated transaction per second and during non-peak hours. The NPCI has allowed a maximum of one attempt and three retries per autopay mandate.
“Members are requested to take note of this compliance requirement and communicate it to relevant stakeholders and their respective partners for implementation by 31st July 2025,” the circular added.