Fintech Brief — August 25, 2026 UPI Completes a Decade: From 1.78 Crore to 24,162 Crore Annual Transactions The Unified Payments Interface, launched by NPCI on August 25, 2016, turns ten today — and the numbers are staggering. Annual transaction volume surged nearly 13,000-fold, from 1.78 crore in FY 2016-17 to 24,162 crore in FY 2025-26. Transaction value hit ₹314 lakh crore in the same period, while monthly volumes touched a record 2,366 crore in July 2026. ...
Fintech Brief — August 21, 2026 UPI Transaction Fees Expected Within Two Weeks The government is preparing to announce a 0.3% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions of ₹2,000 and above, with an official notification expected within two weeks. The move follows the passage of legislation earlier this month that laid the legal groundwork for ending India’s zero-MDR regime for merchant payments — while keeping peer-to-peer transactions free. Industry experts have pushed back, arguing that zero MDR for small merchants and low-value payments must be retained to protect UPI’s financial inclusion gains. UPI processed a record 23.66 billion transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore in July 2026, according to NPCI data, making it the backbone of India’s digital payments ecosystem. The challenge now: designing a tiered MDR structure that recovers infrastructure costs without pricing small merchants out of digital payments. ...