NPCI Extends UPI Market Share Cap to 2026, Boosts WhatsApp Pay to 500M+ Users

Dec 31, 2024, 10:40 AM

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended the deadline for implementing a 30% market share cap on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction volumes by two years, until December 31, 2026. This decision provides relief to dominant UPI apps such as Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay, which together control 85-90% of the market in India's $200 billion digital payments sector. Additionally, NPCI has removed the user onboarding limit for WhatsApp Pay, allowing it to extend UPI services to all of its more than 500 million users in India. This move is aimed at boosting digital payments and fostering competition within the UPI ecosystem, which processes over 13 billion transactions monthly.