National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI’s) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) Dilip Asbe recently said that the proposed merchant discount rate (MDR) would fund a sustainable Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem, with the money flowing to the banks and platforms that power UPI. An NPCI circular detailing this split shows remitter banks will get the largest share of the revenue charged on person-to-merchant transactions above ₹2,000, once it takes effect from October 15, 2026. Public sector banks (PSBs) dominate as remitters, with State Bank of India (SBI) accounting for 28 per cent of UPI transactions initiated, followed by Bank of Baroda (BoB) at 7.5 per cent. However, private banks lead on the beneficiary or merchant side, with Yes Bank receiving 41 per cent of UPI transactions, followed by Axis Bank at a little over 10 per cent. By volume, UPI accounted for 87 per cent of digital-payment transactions as of July 2026, but just 10 per cent of transaction value, while Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) accounted for 70 per cent of value on just 0.1 per cent of volume.





