The Parliament was informed on Monday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has acknowledged India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as the largest retail fast-payment system in the world by transaction volume.

Key Highlights

• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) handles roughly 49% of global real-time payments, per International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• UPI processed about 129.3 billion transactions globally, vastly outpacing other real-time payment systems worldwide.

In a written response to a query, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed the Lok Sabha that the IMF's June 2025 study on "Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)" noted this point.

Furthermore, UPI leads the world with a 49% stake in the global real-time payment system and a transaction volume of 129.3 billion, according to the ACI Worldwide research on "Prime Time for Real-Time" 2024.  

With a market share of 14% and a transaction volume of 37.4%, Brazil is ranked second. Thailand comes in third with a market share of 8% and a transaction volume of 20.4 billion. With a 6% market share and 17.2 billion transactions, China is ranked fourth.

The minister added that the government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) have occasionally undertaken various measures to assist small-scale merchants in implementing digital payment systems, such as UPI. 

These include, among other things, the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), which offers grant support to banks and fintechs for the installation of digital payment infrastructure (like POS terminals and QR codes) in tier-3 to tier-6 centers, and an incentive program for promoting low-value BHIM-UPI transactions.

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By October 31, 2025, PIDF has installed about 5.45 crore digital contact points in tier-3 to tier-6 centers. Additionally, according to the ministry, 56.86 crore QR were distributed to roughly 6.5 crore merchants as of FY 2024–2025.

He continued, "The Government, the RBI, and the NPCI have started deepening digital transactions through RuPay and UPI across businesses, including public services, transportation, and e-commerce platforms on a nationwide basis."