IMF Names UPI the World’s Largest Fast-Payment System

IMF Recognises UPI as the World’s Largest Retail Fast-Payment System

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has received a major global endorsement after the International Monetary Fund acknowledged it as the world’s largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume. The recognition underscores India’s leadership in digital payments, backed by supportive reforms, accessible technology and widespread merchant integration.

UPI’s Global Scale and International Standing

According to the IMF’s June 2025 assessment, UPI now surpasses all other real-time payment systems worldwide. This aligns with ACI Worldwide’s 2024 findings, which estimate that UPI contributes nearly 49% of all global instant payment transactions. With this, India surpasses Brazil’s Pix, Thailand’s PromptPay, South Korea’s financial networks and China’s real-time systems in sheer volume and frequency of transactions.

Policy Support Fueling Rapid Expansion

The Government of India, the Reserve Bank of India and the National Payments Corporation of India have jointly promoted UPI’s outreach through targeted programmes. Initiatives like digital incentives for small-value BHIM-UPI transactions and the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund have accelerated payment penetration in smaller towns. By October 2025, more than 5.45 crore digital touchpoints had been activated across tier-3 to tier-6 centres, significantly strengthening last-mile access.

Merchant Adoption and Ecosystem Maturity

The presence of nearly 57 crore QR codes as of FY 2024–25 has brought around 6.5 crore merchants into the digital economy. UPI now supports payments across public utilities, e-commerce platforms, transport systems and kirana stores. India clocked 129.3 billion real-time transactions—almost half of the global total—reflecting the platform’s scale and reliability.

Exam Oriented Facts

• IMF recognised UPI as the world’s largest fast-payment system in 2025.

• UPI accounts for ~49% of global real-time payment volumes.

• India recorded 129.3 billion real-time transactions.

• Over 5.45 crore digital touchpoints deployed under PIDF.