RBI Official Calls For More Investment In Digital Payments Sector To Increase Competition

At a time when the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is dominating the Indian digital payments sector, an official of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has called for more investments in the digital payment industry to increase competition.

Speaking at the Global Fintech Festival 2023, K Vijayakumar, general manager of the RBI’s Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, said, “There is a need for investment and innovation to tackle the competitiveness in the digital payment industry.”

Vijaykumar said that investments are needed to make the industry competitive and inclusive, Moneycontrol reported. 

He also said that the RBI has been closely watching the developments in the UPI sphere as the interface is growing rapidly in the digital payments space. 

Meanwhile, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) MD and CEO Dilip Asbe said that the number of UPI transactions, which crossed the 10 Bn mark in August, may soon cross 100 Bn mark in a month. 

It must be noted that PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm continue to dominate the UPI payments market, with the three players accounting for about 95% of transactions. During her inaugural speech at the fintech fest, finance minister Nirmala Sitharman also said that fintech startups have surpassed traditional banks in terms of UPI transactions.

Amid this, India is also in talks with multiple countries for expansion of UPI. The Indian government is in discussions with New Zealand, and many countries from Africa and South America to introduce UPI.

Meanwhile, continuing its push for further penetration of UPI, the NPCI launched a number of new products during the three-day fintech event. In partnership with the Indian Highway Management Company Limited (IHMCL), RBI has launched  EV charging payments on the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) FASTag platform. Further the new product line includes credit lines on UPI, near-field communication (NFC)-based offline payment modules UPI LITE X and Tap & Pay, and conversational payment products Hello! UPI and BillPay Connect.

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