India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as the world’s leading real-time payment system, overtaking global giant Visa in daily transaction volume, according to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) titled “Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability.”
The report highlights that UPI now accounts for 85% of India’s digital payments and nearly 60% of global real-time transactions. With over 640 million transactions processed daily, UPI has edged past Visa’s 639 million, marking a historic milestone in the global digital payments ecosystem.
In June 2025 alone, UPI facilitated 18.39 billion transactions, amounting to a total value of Rs 24 lakh crore. This represents a 32% year-on-year growth compared to 13.88 billion transactions recorded in the same month last year.
The IMF lauded UPI’s growth as “extraordinary,” especially considering that the platform achieved this scale within just nine years of its launch. The success of UPI underscores the transformative power of interoperable, real-time digital payment systems in driving financial inclusion and innovation on a global scale.
