India pushes homegrown network to rival Visa, Mastercard in payments

India is asking the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money-laundering watchdog, to reduce compliance requirements for cross-border payments made through its homegrown system, several sources familiar with the discussions said.

Launched in 2016, the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) accounted for 83% of India’s digital payments volume in 2024, up from 34% in 2019, and dominates the domestic retail payments sector.