NPCI, banks move in to tame API call overload

As UPI faces repeated outages, the concluding part of the series examines how various stakeholders are collaborating to find a durable fix

- AJINKYA KAWALE

A string of outages in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has brought the real-time payment system developer National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and member banks together in search of a lasting solution to the repeated glitches.

The NPCI is likely to come up with a monitoring mechanism to track transaction status API (application programming interface) calls, in consultation with major payment service provider (PSP) banks, to prevent any misuse within the ecosystem, according to people aware of the matter.

"Any existing limits on the number of API calls made for transaction status checks are not enforced since the ecosystem works with trusted partners. If the ecosystem can define it to three per transaction, it should solve the problem," said the participant.

A typical UPI transaction takes 10 digital "hops" to complete - an intricate choreography involving multiple stakeholders, including the payer's PSP banks (such as HDFC Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank), payee PSPs, remitter banks, beneficiary banks, and NPCI itself.