The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organisation that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India. It was set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. NPCI is incorporated as a not-for-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 (formerly Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956), with the objective of providing affordable and robust payments infrastructure across the country.
| Name | National Payments Corporation of India |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | NPCI |
| Type | Not-for-profit company (Section 8) |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Promoters | Reserve Bank of India and Indian Banks' Association |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Sector | Retail payments, settlement systems |
| Regulator | Reserve Bank of India |
The need for a single, consolidated entity to handle retail payments in India was identified by the RBI in its vision documents for payment systems. Prior to NPCI, retail payment networks such as cheque clearing and ATM switching were operated by various banks and consortia in a fragmented manner. NPCI was created to bring these systems under a common, bank-owned, not-for-profit umbrella, modelled in part on similar entities in other jurisdictions.
The shareholding of NPCI is held by Indian banks, including public sector banks, private sector banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks and payments banks, reflecting its role as a sector-wide infrastructure provider.
NPCI operates several payment systems that have become central to digital and retail banking in India.
Through NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the corporation has worked on the cross-border acceptance of UPI and RuPay. Cooperation arrangements have been announced with central banks and payment system operators in several countries, enabling acceptance of UPI-based QR payments and RuPay cards by Indian travellers and the Indian diaspora abroad.
NPCI is governed by a Board of Directors that includes nominees of the RBI, representatives of shareholder banks and independent directors. The day-to-day operations are led by a Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. As a critical financial market infrastructure, NPCI's systems are subject to oversight by the RBI under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
NPCI plays a foundational role in India's transition towards a digital economy. Its systems underpin large volumes of everyday consumer transactions, government welfare disbursements, toll collection and bill payments. UPI, in particular, has been credited with broadening access to digital payments among small merchants and individual users, and has been studied internationally as a model of public digital infrastructure. The organisation also supports financial inclusion goals by enabling Aadhaar-linked payments and DBT under various central and state government schemes.