NPCI meets banks, UPI apps to discuss recent outages

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the country's flagship payments platform Unified Payments Interface (UPI), held a meeting with major banks and third-party application providers (TPAPs) on Tuesday to discuss the recent outages on the platform, according to sources aware of the development.

- SUBRATA PANDA, ABHIJIT LELE & AJINKYA KAWALE

These disruptions, which occurred within a span of three weeks, have raised concerns among customers and caused inconvenience to them.

According to sources, the NPCI informed banks and TPAPs about the recent outages and said it was conducting a "root cause analysis" of April 12 outage, which was expected to be completed this week.

Additionally, the NPCI assured participants that it is taking necessary steps to minimise such disruptions, and urged banks to do the same to ensure smooth functioning of the UPI system.

Sources also said that the NPCI told banks that it will be sharing a detailed "to-do" list, outlining specific actions that need to be implemented to strengthen the UPI ecosystem and reduce the likelihood of future outages.

Banks present included State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Yes Bank, among others. PhonePe and Google Pay were also part of the meeting, according to sources.