What is Unified Payment Interface?

It isn’t just demonetisation that has led to the use of cashless sources of making payments. At the beginning of the year, Jan 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced Unified Payment Interface. It came into operation on 11 April, 2016. This is one of the biggest steps taken by the Indian Government to bring about a banking revolution in the country. There are many people who still have the question, ‘What is unified payment interface?’ It is a new mode of payment through which people can access multiple bank accounts and make transactions.

In order to understand ‘What is UPI?’ is not such a complex thing. At present, each time that we have to make an online payment, we are required to fill in details such as account type, bank name, IFSC code, account number, etc. Mentioning all these details over a phone can get taxing. Usually, banks take a time period of 12 hours to add the account of a new payee and only after that a transaction can take place. The main aim of UPI is to skip through this long process. No longer do account holders need to wait for so long.

UPI is a single platform via which you can receive or send money simply from a smartphone with your Unique ID on your Aadhaar card as well as a phone number or do so without having to mention bank account information and just the virtual payment address. There are a number of banks that are now UPI-enabled such as Axis Bank, SBI, HDFC, Canara Bank, Yes Bank, and many others. UPI is available 24x7 and requires a single authentication making online payments easier like never before. It is very beneficial for the merchants as well who will enjoy seamless collection of funds from all the customers.

If you haven’t yet downloaded UPI on your smartphone, it is time you do so for a unique online payment experience!