Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans to expand India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) globally during the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai on September 8, 2026. The system, managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), currently serves as the world's largest retail fast-payment platform by transaction volume.
In August 2026, UPI processed 24,51 billion transactions totaling approximately $314 billion. As of 2024, the platform accounted for roughly 49% of global real-time payment volume. It is already operational in 11 countries, including Singapore, the UAE, France, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece, and the Maldives.
The NPCI aims to integrate UPI with 15 to 20 additional markets over the next decade. The strategy focuses on countries with significant Indian diaspora populations and strong bilateral trade ties, using the existing linkage with Singapore's PayNow as a model for future cross-border partnerships.
India remains the world's largest recipient of remittances, recording over $155 billion in inflows for the fiscal year ending March 2026. By enabling direct system-to-system interoperability, the government intends to bypass traditional banking networks and reduce transfer fees that currently average 6% or more.
