New UPI rules: Key changes include limits on balance checks and autopayments, transaction recipient visibility, and improved payment status updates.
New UPI rules will be implemented on Friday, August 1. These rules will further enhance the efficiency of UPI apps and protect users from fraud. Implemented by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), they will apply to all payment service providers like Google Pay, PhonePe, or Paytm.
The new rules will regulate activities like checking bank balance, processing autopayments and accessing bank details. All these changes have been mentioned in a circular issued by NPCI on May 21, stating that these changes will improve the performance of UPI applications.
Balance enquiry
Each UPI app will allow users to check their bank balance 50 times a day. UPI apps will also be able to limit or stop balance enquiry requests to reduce the load on UPI during peak hours. From August, users will be able to see the available balance in their account with every transaction.
Auto payment processing
Auto payments allow banks to debit a certain amount from users’ accounts automatically on a recurring basis. However, autopayments, when done during the peak hours, can increase pressure on the Application Programming Interface’s (API) system. So NPCI has mandated that the processing of such transactions will only be processed during non-peak hours before 10 am, 1- 5 pm, and after 9:30 pm. This means that if an autopayment is due at 11 am, it might be deducted before or after the scheduled time. Additionally, retries will be provided for successful deduction of auto pay, after which auto payment will be cancelled.
Bank details
Customers will be able to see the list of banks linked to their mobile number. They can only check the bank’s details 25 times per day. With this, the customers will only be able to see their bank details at certain times, and the requests are to be initiated by the customers after selecting the issuer’s bank in the UPI app.
Transaction status
Transactions issued are very common during the peak hours when customers usually experience that the money has been debited from the sender’s account, but hasn’t been received by the receiver. From August onwards, these unconfirmed payments will have a time window to update within seconds instead of showing pending. The user will be able to check the payment status only 3 times, with a time gap of 90 seconds between them.
Details of the recipient
The name of the transaction recipient will be shown to the sender before each transaction. This is to avoid fraud or sending money to the wrong recipient. The registered name of the recipient will be shown along with the transaction ID on the UPI app.
