India at the cusp of a digital payments revolution: NPCI head Dilip Asbe

Significant support is required from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), government and financial ecosystem to explore ways to bring an additional 200-300 million people onto the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform, Dilip Asbe, managing director and chief executive of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said on Friday.

“We see around 450 million users using the UPI, with about 200 million daily active users. I think we are at the cusp of revolution now because, from here, the network effects will be added into the system,” he said at the India Digital Summit 2025 in Delhi.

According to Asbe, the UPI, which is operated by the NPCI, has become the infrastructure layer which is being leveraged by all fintech players.


Digital payments in India are gaining immense traction, becoming a muscle memory for people in their daily transactions, he said, adding that the UPI currently processes nearly 17 billion transactions.

“The UPI, from its current base, has the potential to grow 10x. We are at a stage now where we must aim for a 10x growth. I don’t know whether it will take 10 years or less, but 10x growth is possible,” Asbe said.

On January 1, ET reported that Walmart-owned PhonePe led the market in November 2024 with a 48% share in UPI transactions, followed by Google Pay and Paytm.

The NPCI has extended the deadline for UPI providers to comply with the 30% market share cap by two years till December 31, 2026.

Asbe further said that the ecosystem diversity has been a crucial factor of growth of the UPI as the new players came in.

He said that if startups in the fintech sector are unwilling to invest in cybersecurity, they should reconsider entering the payment systems or digital business segment.

“That’s one very clear direction from the government and RBI to NPCI and the ecosystem operated by various platforms under NPCI. If cybersecurity is not a top priority for the CEO or the board, I think that company is heading in the wrong direction,” Asbe said.

He also highlighted the growth of RuPay credit cards, emphasising that it is one of the largest domestic card networks with international acceptance.

“As of now, we account for about 16-17% of the total credit spending in the country,” Asbe said.