GPay, BharatPe, Razorpay, Paytm partner with NPCI to introduce credit card transactions on UPI

India’s National Payments Corporation (NPCI) and several leading payment aggregators such as BharatPe, Google Pay, Razorpay, Paytm, PayU, and Pine Labs have teamed up to enable credit card transactions on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India, following a recent move by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to link RuPay credit card to UPI. This initiative aims to provide customers with an instant payment experience through UPI while also offering the short-term credit benefits and rewards that credit cards offer.

Before RBI was moved, UPI users could only make transactions through bank accounts, overdraft accounts, and prepaid accounts. However, RuPay credit card linkage with UPI will eliminate the need for customers to bring their credit card with them for payment. This move is expected to lead to increased acceptance, as UPI provides customers with more points of acceptance through a wide network of asset-light UPI QR codes. This move is especially beneficial for merchants in semi-urban areas, where point-of-sale card terminals are not widely available.

India has more than 250 million unique users and five crore merchants on the UPI platform, which has become one of the most inclusive modes of payment in the country. In January alone, UPI processed 8,038.59 million transactions worth 1,299,058.78 crore. According to RBI Payments Vision 2025, credit-based payment transactions are expected to grow by 16% year-on-year over the next four years.

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Nalin Bansal, Chief of Corporate and Fintech Relationships and Key Initiatives, NPCI, said, “India is one of the select few countries that has been successful in launching innovation through targeted regulations. And following the RBI’s decision to start connecting RuPay credit cards to UPI, we immediately began enabling leading payment aggregators to increase merchant acceptance and customer awareness in an effort to attract early and widespread adoption.” This move is expected to provide access to a hassle-free and seamless payment experience for both individuals and merchants, going into the future.

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