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

Digital payments in India are gaining immense traction, becoming a muscle memory for people in their daily transactions, 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 Unified Payments Interface (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 held in New Delhi.

“Now, I think we need huge support from the RBI, the government, and the ecosystem to figure out how we can onboard another 200-300 million people back to this,” he added.

According to Asbe, UPI — which is operated by the NPCI — has become the infrastructure layer which is being leveraged by all fintech players. It currently processes close to 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,” he said.

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

The NPCI has also extended the deadline for UPI providers to comply with the 30% market share cap by two more years. The new deadline is December 31, 2026.Asbe further noted that the ecosystem diversity has been a crucial factor of growth of UPI as the new players came in. If startups in the fintech sector are unwilling to invest in cybersecurity, they should reconsider entering the payment systems or digital business space, he said.

“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 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,” he added.