Faster UPI transactions to accelerate a seamless and inclusive financial ecosystem

Mumbai, June 17

UPI is now a primary mode of payment in India’s urban and semi urban payment landscape, in 2025 alone, the UPI processed 131 billion transactions with daily volumes exceeding 590 million. Recently, a major system outage saw UPI success rates fall to 50–60 per cent, affecting over 40 million transactions in a single hour. A key reason being delayed API responses leading to repeated retries and backend flooding. However, the strain on the system is high and in order to process these high volume transactions, UPI API response time has been reduced from 30 seconds to 10-15 seconds.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Vishal Maru- Global Processing Head (FSS- Financial Software and Systems) says, “Accelerated API cycles effectively address this issue. Consumers will now receive faster transaction confirmations, particularly during reversals or collection requests, instances that usually induce stress.”

Less frequently discussed is how this change diminishes system-level retry storms, which not only congest the system but can also lead to cascading timeouts. By narrowing response windows, UPI is evolving into a self-regulating and failure-resistant network. Quicker timeouts also facilitate a more equitable distribution of traffic among PSPs and banks, enhancing consistency even during peak periods and benefiting users of smaller or regional banks not solely those utilizing the largest applications, he said.

What sets this apart is that shorter response times also enhance cache efficiency and lessen unnecessary database interactions, thereby making each transaction less demanding on system resources. Consequently, although initial expenditures may see a slight increase, the cost per transaction is anticipated to decrease over time, benefiting banks, payment providers, and ultimately consumers. This is not merely an enhancement in speed; it represents a profound systemic optimization that aligns with India’s goal to scale UPI to 1,000 crore monthly transactions by 2026 without sacrificing trust, cost, or user experience.

Dilip Modi, Founder and CEO, Spice Money says, “This move is also reassuring for rural users, as it strengthens trust in digital systems and paves the way for deeper UPI penetration across underserved regions. For a nation committed to a cashless future, this step reinforces the trust necessary to democratize access and elevate Bharat’s digital payment ecosystem.”

Spice Money has always been at the forefront of democratizing digital financial services, bridging the gap between traditional banking and emerging fintech solutions on the back of our 15+ lakh non - bank business correspondents (Adhikaris). As India moves toward a cashless economy, innovations like these will play a pivotal role in ensuring no citizen is left behind.

EoM.