A significant technical glitch has disrupted Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services across India on Saturday morning, marking the third major outage in just 30 days.
The disruption has severely impacted users across major digital payment platforms including Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm, causing widespread inconvenience to both individuals and businesses. According to DownDetector, a service monitoring platform, 2,147 complaints were logged by 12:56 PM, with approximately 80% of users experiencing payment-related issues.
Impact and Scope
The outage has affected transactions across major financial institutions, including:
- HDFC Bank State
- Bank of India
- Bank of Baroda
- Kotak Mahindra Bank
Recent UPI Developments
In a related development, NPCI recently implemented a significant policy change for international UPI transactions. As of April 8, restrictions have been placed on QR code payments made outside India to enhance payer identification. However, domestic QR-based payments remain unaffected by these changes.
Previous Outages
This isn't an isolated incident. On March 26, the UPI network experienced a widespread outage affecting digital transactions nationwide. NPCI acknowledged these issues, stating they had "faced intermittent technical issues owing to which UPI had partial decline." While the system was eventually stabilized, another brief outage occurred on April 2.
UPI's Significance in Digital Payments
UPI has become a transformative force in digital payments, accounting for 65% of total transactions. While UPI dominates small and mid-value transactions, credit cards and EMIs are increasingly preferred for larger purchases, particularly in sectors like education, healthcare, and auto ancillary.
Transaction patterns show spikes in credit usage during festive shopping, school admissions, and seasonal trends, indicating consumers' reliance on short-term credit during high-spend periods. These insights are based on analyzed transaction data from over 20,000 merchants across the country.
Updates on the current situation will be provided as more information becomes available from NPCI and affected service providers.