India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been officially recognized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the world’s largest real-time payment system, marking a major milestone in India’s digital payments journey. According to the IMF’s report titled “Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)”, UPI now accounts for 49% of all global real-time payment transactions.
The data is supported by ACI Worldwide’s Prime Time for Real-Time report (2024), which highlights that UPI processed approximately 129.3 billion transactions, far surpassing other leading real-time payment ecosystems, including Brazil’s Pix, Thailand’s PromptPay, and China’s real-time payment systems.
The rapid expansion of UPI adoption is attributed to India’s strong digital ecosystem, led by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and government initiatives promoting cashless transactions. The Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) has further accelerated merchant-level digitization, particularly in tier-3 to tier-6 regions, contributing to deeper ecosystem penetration.
Industry experts note that UPI’s interoperability, low-cost architecture, and ease of integration have set global benchmarks. Multiple countries across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are exploring or adopting UPI-like frameworks or bilateral integrations with India.
With nearly half of the world’s real-time transactions passing through UPI, India continues to consolidate its position as a global fintech leader.