New UPI Guidelines Take Effect: NPCI Imposes Limits to Streamline Payments and Prevent Fraud

Mumbai: In a significant move to enhance the efficiency and safety of digital payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced a fresh set of regulations governing the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem. The changes, which came into effect today, are aimed at reducing network load, curbing misuse, and improving transaction transparency.

Under the new framework, UPI users will face daily caps on certain activities. Most notably, individuals can now check their account balance only up to 50 times per day per UPI app, within a 24-hour rolling period. While users may still access their balance on multiple apps, each application will enforce its own enquiry limit.

To enhance transparency, banks have also been directed to display the available account balance automatically after every successful UPI payment.

In a bid to decongest the UPI system during high-traffic periods, NPCI has fixed specific time slots for processing auto-pay transactions. These scheduled payments will now only be executed before 10 a.m., between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., or after 9:30 p.m.

The guidelines further introduce limits on account management and transaction reviews. Users will now be allowed to view the list of linked bank accounts only 25 times a day. In the case of pending payments, users can attempt to check the transaction status a maximum of three times, with a minimum gap of 90 seconds between each try.

The revised rules also tighten conditions on payment reversals, restricting them to 10 per month, and no more than five initiated by the same sender.

To reduce the risk of errors and fraud, UPI apps must now display the recipient’s registered bank name before a transaction is confirmed, helping users verify the details before sending money.

NPCI has warned all member banks and payment service providers that non-compliance with these directives may lead to severe consequences, including financial penalties, restrictions on new customer onboarding, or suspension of API access for UPI operations.

As UPI continues to be a cornerstone of India’s digital payments infrastructure, with billions of transactions processed each month, the NPCI’s latest measures aim to make the system more robust, user-friendly, and secure.