In 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the very first version of UPI. It was developed in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and major banks in the country.

But the journey of UPI began much before that.

In 2008 when the NPCI was formed, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, one of the wizards behind the “Aadhaar card” played an important role in its establishment and also served as its chairman from 2009 to 2013.

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Under his leadership, the NPCI launched two systems that were going to revolutionize money transfers in India, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).

In 2012 bankers and industry experts came together under the able leadership of Mr. Nandan Nilekani, to discuss the need for a payment system that would allow people to make digital transactions without the need for a mobile wallet.

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It was time to create a ground-breaking payment system. And thus the idea of UPI was born.

In 2015 UPI was developed as an open architecture platform that would allow banks to develop their apps.

Mr. Nilekani convinced all the major banks to join in, including the Reserve Bank of India. As a result of the collective efforts behind the initiative, India got a digital payment system that anyone could use, and was compatible with multiple apps.

What’s more, it could also allow people to transact without the internet using just a smartphone & any payment platform. For this, one only needs to dial ‘*99#’, which is called the USSD service. This service was unveiled in India for all the mobile users, by NPCI in November 2021.

Today, UPI is the most popular digital payment system in India, with over 200 million registered users and more than 2 billion transactions processed every month.

Try UPI today, on MobiKwik App!