RBI Annual Report FY 2025-26 explains UPI, RTGS, NEFT, digital payments, Payments Vision 2028, DPIP, CBDC, cross-border payments and payment-system reforms.

The RBI Annual Report FY 2025-26 presents India’s payment ecosystem as a combination of rapid digital adoption, stronger payment-system resilience, increasing internationalisation and a growing emphasis on fraud prevention and customer protection. During the year, retail payment transactions increased 26.8% in volume, UPI continued to dominate retail payments, the RBI issued Payments Vision 2028, the first phase of the Digital Payment Intelligence Platform (DPIP) became operational, continuous cheque clearing was introduced, and India’s UPI ecosystem continued expanding internationally. For the RBI Grade B Promotion Exam, Grade B, UPSC, banking examinations and interviews, this is one of the most important chapters because it connects UPI, RTGS, NEFT, NACH, IMPS, CBDC, cross-border payments, payment regulation, fraud prevention and RBI’s technological infrastructure.

1. RBI’s Vision for India’s Payment System

The RBI’s payment-system strategy is built around creating payment systems that are:

Secure
Accessible
Affordable
Efficient
Inclusive
Innovative
Resilient

The Annual Report states that during FY 2025-26, RBI focused on expanding digital payments while simultaneously strengthening the resilience and inclusiveness of the digital-payment ecosystem. It also continued efforts to expand the international footprint of UPI and RuPay cards.

The year’s major strategic development was the release of:

Payments Vision 2028

which provides the roadmap for India’s digital-payment ecosystem up to December 2028.

2. Payments Vision: The Evolution of RBI’s Payment Strategy

The RBI has periodically released payment-vision documents since 2001.

The Annual Report notes that payment-vision documents were released in:

2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025.

During FY 2025-26, the latest strategic document was issued:

Payments Vision 2028

Date: March 27, 2026

Horizon: Up to December 2028.

Exam Point

Remember the distinction:

Payments Vision 2025 → earlier strategic framework

Payments Vision 2028 → roadmap issued March 27, 2026

3. Digital Payments Grew Rapidly

Cashless transactions recorded strong growth during FY 2025-26.

Volume growth

26.8%

Value growth

13.2%

The previous year’s corresponding growth was:

Volume: 34.8%
Value: 17.3%.

So digital/cashless payments continued expanding rapidly, although the rate of growth moderated from the previous year.

4. Total Digital Payment Numbers

The Annual Report’s payment-system data show the scale of India’s payment ecosystem.

Indicator	FY 2025-26
Total payments — volume	28,23,036 lakh
Total payments — value	₹3,322.5 lakh crore
Total digital payments — volume	28,17,448 lakh
Total digital payments — value	₹3,251.0 lakh crore
Total retail payments — volume	28,19,536 lakh
Total retail payments — value	₹1,048.8 lakh crore

The distinction between total payments, retail payments and digital payments is important.

5. UPI Remained the Dominant Retail Payment System

The most important payment-system statistic of the year is UPI.

During FY 2025-26:

UPI volume increased 30%.
UPI value increased 20.6%.
UPI accounted for nearly 86% of total retail payment transactions.

UPI turnover

Year	UPI volume (lakh)	UPI value (₹ lakh crore)
2023-24	13,11,295	200.0
2024-25	18,58,660	260.6
2025-26	24,16,169	314.2

Exam Fact

If asked which payment system accounted for the largest share of retail payment transactions:

UPI — nearly 86%.

6. UPI Is Not the Same as All Digital Payments

This is a common examination trap.

India’s digital-payment ecosystem includes:

UPI
NEFT
RTGS
IMPS
NACH
APBS
AePS
Card payments
Prepaid payment instruments
Other electronic systems

UPI is the largest retail payment mechanism, but it is not synonymous with the entire digital-payment ecosystem.

7. RTGS: Large-Value Payment Infrastructure

The Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system is the large-value credit-transfer system.

During FY 2025-26:

Volume increased 15.7%
Value increased 12.9%.

RTGS FY 2025-26

Volume: 3,500 lakh transactions
Value: ₹2,273.7 lakh crore.

Concept

RTGS → large-value transfers + real-time gross settlement

The Annual Report notes that RTGS figures include customer and inter-bank transactions.

8. NEFT Continued to Expand

The National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system also recorded significant growth.

FY 2025-26:

Volume: 1,00,996 lakh
Value: ₹502.3 lakh crore

compared with:

FY 2024-25 volume: 96,198 lakh
FY 2024-25 value: ₹444.6 lakh crore.

NEFT therefore remains an important component of India’s electronic fund-transfer infrastructure alongside UPI and RTGS.

9. IMPS and NACH

IMPS

FY 2025-26:

Volume: 49,431 lakh
Value: ₹76.7 lakh crore

NACH Credit

Volume: 18,284 lakh
Value: ₹19.0 lakh crore

NACH Debit

Volume: 21,614 lakh
Value: ₹26.9 lakh crore.

Exam Tip

Do not try to memorise every payment system with equal weight.

Priority should be:

UPI → RTGS → NEFT → IMPS → NACH → APBS/AePS → Cards

10. Card Payments

Card payments also increased in FY 2025-26.

Total card payments

Volume: 73,040 lakh
Value: ₹28.1 lakh crore.

Credit cards

Volume: 60,238 lakh
Value: ₹23.6 lakh crore

Debit cards

Volume: 12,802 lakh
Value: ₹4.5 lakh crore.

The data show a striking difference between credit-card and debit-card transaction volumes.

11. Authorisation of Payment Systems

During FY 2025-26, RBI authorised:

23 non-bank Payment Aggregators
4 non-bank PPI issuers
1 Interoperable Mobile and Net Banking operator.

At end-March 2026, the number of authorised non-bank Payment Aggregators stood at:

compared with:

51 at end-March 2025.

12. What Are Payment Aggregators?

Payment Aggregators facilitate merchants in accepting payments from customers through different payment methods.

During FY 2025-26, RBI issued a Master Direction on Regulation of Payment Aggregators.

The framework:

Rationalised categorisation of PAs.
Introduced enhanced due diligence norms for merchants.
Brought online, physical and cross-border payment aggregation activities within the regulatory framework.

Exam Point

Payment Aggregators → online + physical + cross-border aggregation

13. Digital Payment Intelligence Platform — DPIP

Fraud prevention became a major priority.

The RBI had set an objective of establishing a Digital Payment Intelligence Platform (DPIP) using advanced technology for real-time identification of suspicious transactions.

The first phase of the DPIP prototype — the Smart Registry — became operational in August 2025.

What comes next?

The second phase involves developing an:

AI/ML-based risk-scoring platform

for payment transactions.

It is envisaged to be completed during FY 2026-27.

Easy memory

DPIP Phase I → Smart Registry

DPIP Phase II → AI/ML risk scoring

14. Survey on Usage of Digital Payments

RBI conducted a nationwide survey to understand digital-payment adoption.

The survey covered:

More than 30,000 users
10,000 merchants

across the country.

Findings

52% of users had adopted digital payments.

The main drivers were:

Speed
Convenience

Among merchants:

67% reported accepting digital payment modes.

UPI emerged as the predominant payment mode for both usage and acceptance.

Exam Fact

Digital-payment survey → 30,000+ users + 10,000 merchants

15. Payments Vision 2028: What Does It Aim to Do?

Payments Vision 2028 is not simply about increasing transaction volumes.

Its priorities include:

A. Strengthening digital-payment safety

The RBI will examine:

Transaction switch-on/switch-off facilities.
Shared responsibility framework between issuer and beneficiary banks.
Review of cheque design and security.
Cyber Key Risk Indicators for non-bank payment system operators.

B. Improving cross-border payments

The RBI proposes steps to improve efficiency and publish detailed progress reports.

C. Simplifying payment-system authorisation

It will explore streamlining regulatory processes under:

Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007
FEMA, 1999.

16. A Potential Perpetual Regulatory Sandbox

Payments Vision 2028 also proposes examining the case for recognising small payment-system providers under a perpetual regulatory sandbox structure.

This is an important conceptual shift:

Traditional sandbox → controlled experimentation

Perpetual sandbox → potentially continuous regulatory experimentation for eligible small providers

The Annual Report presents this as an area to be examined, not as an already-established universal framework.

17. Facilitating Bank-Account Switching

Another proposed Payments Vision 2028 initiative is facilitating migration of payment instructions from one account to another.

The objective is to allow customers to change bank accounts with minimal friction.

This may appear administrative, but it is fundamentally about:

customer convenience + competition + portability

18. Digital-Payment Research and Data

Payments Vision 2028 proposes dedicated research and training capacity relating to digital payments.

It also envisages enhanced access to:

Domestic payments data
Cross-border payments data.

This indicates that payment policy is increasingly becoming data-driven.

19. Domestic Legal Entity Identifier

Payments Vision 2028 also proposes examining:

A uniform Domestic Legal Entity Identifier (DLEI).

The proposal is linked to improving systemic stability and integrity, particularly for banking entities considered critical to digital payments.

Exam Note

Do not confuse:

DLEI → Domestic Legal Entity Identifier

with other identity/identifier frameworks used in financial markets.

20. Electronic Cheques

Payments Vision 2028 proposes exploring the introduction of electronic cheques.

It also proposes:

Innovation in card payments.
Interoperability in TReDS to promote inclusivity.

21. Continuous Clearing and Settlement of Cheques

One of the major operational changes in FY 2025-26 was the implementation of continuous clearing and settlement on realisation in the Cheque Truncation System (CTS).

Phase 1 went live:

October 4, 2025

The objective was to:

Expedite cheque clearing.
Reduce settlement risks.
Provide faster credit to customers.

Instead of relying on the earlier batch-processing approach, cheques are:

Scanned → Presented → Confirmed → Settled

on a continuous basis during presentation and confirmation sessions.

Banks are required to credit customer accounts within one hour of settlement.

22. Why Continuous Cheque Clearing Matters

Earlier, cheque processing involved a longer clearing cycle.

The new approach reduces the time taken from:

T+1 days → a few hours

The change therefore improves:

Speed
Liquidity availability
Customer experience
Settlement efficiency
Risk management

The RBI also centralised inward-clearing operations by establishing a service branch at the Chennai Regional Office rather than maintaining separate infrastructure across 19 regional offices.

23. Authentication Mechanism for Digital Payments

RBI issued directions to encourage adoption of new authentication factors based on technological developments.

The directions also require validation of Additional Factor Authentication (AFA) by card issuers in cross-border card-not-present transactions when requested by overseas merchants or acquirers.

Exam Concept

The key idea is:

Authentication technology must evolve alongside payment technology.

24. AePS Touchpoint Operators

RBI issued directions to strengthen the robustness of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS).

The measures focus on:

Onboarding of AePS Touchpoint Operators (ATOs)
Stronger risk management by acquiring banks.

This is particularly relevant for last-mile financial access because AePS is an important channel for customers using Aadhaar-enabled banking services.

25. Formation of the Payments Regulatory Board

A major institutional development occurred in 2025.

Amendments to Section 3 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, made through the Finance Act, 2017, came into effect on:

May 9, 2025

Consequently:

Payments Regulatory Board (PRB) replaced the erstwhile Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS).

First PRB meeting

January 5, 2026

in Mumbai.

It was chaired by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra.

High-Probability MCQ

BPSS was replaced by which body?

Answer: Payments Regulatory Board (PRB).

26. Internationalisation of UPI

India’s payment infrastructure is increasingly becoming international.

The UPI–Singapore PayNow bilateral linkage has been operational since February 2023, facilitating real-time cross-border personal remittances.

The RBI also continued facilitating:

Bilateral fast-payment-system linkages.
Multilateral linkages under Project Nexus.
Cross-border remittances.
Merchant-payment interoperability.

27. Countries Where UPI QR Acceptance Was Operational

The Annual Report states that UPI QR-code-based merchant acceptance was operational in:

Bhutan
France
Mauritius
Nepal
Qatar
Singapore
Sri Lanka
UAE

The extent of accessibility varies across jurisdictions — some are nationwide while others are available only at specific locations.

Exam Tip

Remember the list as an internationalisation theme rather than assuming identical UPI functionality in every country.

28. UPI-Like Infrastructure and RuPay International Expansion

Deployment of UPI-like infrastructure was underway in:

Namibia
Peru

Meanwhile, deployment of the RuPay stack for development of domestic card schemes had been completed in:

Mauritius
UAE.

The international expansion is being driven through strategic collaborations involving NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and overseas partners.

29. RBI Digital Payments Index

The RBI-Digital Payments Index (DPI) continued to show strong growth during FY 2025-26.

The index is computed semi-annually.

It reflects the rapid adoption and deepening of digital payments across the country.

Exam Point

RBI-DPI → semi-annually computed

Do not confuse this with transaction volumes or UPI’s market share.

30. Inspection of Payment System Operators

RBI’s supervisory role extends to payment-system operators.

During FY 2025-26, RBI conducted onsite inspections of 90 Payment System Operators (PSOs) under Section 16 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

The inspected entities included:

CCIL
NPCI
PPI issuers
Payment Aggregators
BBPOUs
Card networks
White Label ATM operators
TReDS providers
ATM network providers.

Exam Fact

PSO inspections in FY 2025-26 → 90.

31. Digital-Payment Fraud: The Next Frontier

The expansion of digital payments creates a parallel challenge:

How do you make digital payments faster without making fraud easier?

The RBI’s response increasingly combines:

Authentication + Data + AI/ML + Customer controls + Bank responsibility

The Annual Report identifies authorised push payment frauds as a continuing challenge.

These are cases where customers themselves initiate payments despite safeguards such as:

Additional Factor Authentication
Payee-name lookup
Card controls
Tokenisation

The RBI therefore proposes examining additional frictions in digital-payment processes to improve customer protection and recovery of funds.

32. Switch-On / Switch-Off Facility and Kill Switch

The RBI notes that switch-on and switch-off facilities are already available for domestic and international card transactions.

Such controls give customers greater control over their payment instruments.

For 2026-27, RBI proposes exploring similar facilities for all digital-payment modes.

It also proposes exploring a:

“Kill switch”

that could block all debits from an account in one action.

The intended benefits are:

Greater customer control
Faster response to suspected fraud
Greater customer confidence
Better fraud containment.

33. More Entities Could Get Direct RTGS/NEFT Access

Another 2026-27 priority is to explore granting direct access to RTGS and NEFT to more categories of entities.

The objective is:

Central bank money settlement → lower settlement risk → faster transactions.

This is important because settlement in central bank money reduces certain counterparty and settlement risks.

34. Rural and Semi-Urban Digital Payment Expansion

Despite India’s enormous digital-payment growth, the RBI continues to focus on:

Rural areas
Semi-urban areas
Last-mile connectivity
Inclusive access

This is explicitly included in the Department’s 2026-27 goals.

Important principle

Digital transformation is not complete merely because aggregate transaction volumes are high.

The RBI’s focus is increasingly:

Volume + inclusion + security + accessibility

35. Cross-Border Payments as a Strategic Priority

The RBI will continue expanding linkages between UPI and fast-payment systems of strategic partner jurisdictions.

The objectives are:

Seamless remittances
Secure cross-border payments
Lower-cost transactions
Merchant-payment interoperability.

This directly supports the broader objective of internationalising India’s payment infrastructure.

36. NGRTGS 4.0

The RBI upgraded the Next Generation Real Time Gross Settlement (NGRTGS) system from:

Version 3.0 → Version 4.0

The upgraded system provides:

Richer web interface
Better performance
Enhanced security
Integrated partitioning and data-archival mechanism.

Exam Point

NGRTGS → upgraded from 3.0 to 4.0 during FY 2025-26.

37. NEFT and ISO 20022

NEFT has been ISO 20022 compliant since 2023.

During FY 2025-26, all member banks completed migration of their:

Core Banking Solutions (CBS)
Middleware

to the ISO 20022 messaging standard.

This enabled direct end-to-end transmission of ISO messages without converters.

Benefits

The transition enables:

Structured data
More granular information
Better global harmonisation
Greater interoperability across payment systems.

38. Indian Financial Sector Cloud

The RBI also advanced the Indian Financial Sector (IFS) Cloud.

The beta version was made live during FY 2025-26.

By the end of the year:

9 entities had been onboarded.

The first phase includes basic cloud services such as:

IaaS
PaaS
SaaS
CaaS
STaaS
IPaaS

Phase II is expected to introduce advanced capabilities such as:

API management
Application performance management
Availability zones
DevSecOps.

39. e-Kuber 3.0

The RBI is also developing e-Kuber 3.0, its next-generation core banking solution.

During FY 2025-26:

The CFL module was completed.
Modules relating to primary auctions, public debt management and the Central Accounts Section were under development.

For 2026-27, government-account modules are expected to go live/migrate from e-Kuber 2.0 in phases.

40. Alternate Payment and Messaging System

RBI has started developing an in-house alternate payment system.

The objective is to reduce external dependencies and provide greater flexibility for system-related changes and enhancements.

The proposed solution is comprehensive and aims to incorporate functionalities of existing centralised payment systems along with advanced features.

Why is this strategically important?

The underlying idea is:

Technological autonomy + resilience + flexibility

41. Global SFMS Hub

The RBI has developed the Global Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) Hub as a cross-border messaging system based on ISO 20022 standards.

Bilateral collaboration with the UAE is underway for interlinking financial messaging systems with the Global SFMS Hub.

The Global SFMS Hub had completed development and was undergoing testing with member banks in India and designated central banks of other countries.

42. .bank.in: Trust in Digital Banking

The RBI introduced the exclusive:

.bank.in

domain for Indian banks.

By March 2026:

Public sector banks
Private sector banks
Small finance banks
Payment banks
Regional rural banks
Local area banks

had migrated their corporate websites to .bank.in.

Foreign banks and cooperative banks were in the process of migration.

Objective

The initiative aims to:

Reduce phishing.
Strengthen cybersecurity.
Reduce malicious activity.
Improve trust in digital banking.

43. What Comes After .bank.in?

The RBI plans an exclusive:

.fin.in

domain for other non-bank entities in the financial sector.

The objective is to strengthen trust and resilience across the broader digital financial-services ecosystem.

Easy memory

.bank.in → banks

.fin.in → other non-bank financial-sector entities

44. ReBIT and IFTAS: Technology Backbone

Two RBI-owned entities are particularly important in this chapter:

ReBIT

Reserve Bank Information Technology Private Limited

During FY 2025-26:

ReBIT expanded to over 1,200 professionals.
It published three global standards/best-practice handbooks covering:
- Enterprise architecture
- AI/ML
- Cybersecurity.

IFTAS

Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services

IFTAS worked on:

Payment systems
Global SFMS Hub
Alternate payment system
IFS Cloud
Foreign currency settlement infrastructure.

45. Foreign Currency Settlement System in GIFT-IFSC

IFTAS, as technology partner for CCIL IFSC Limited, launched the:

Foreign Currency Settlement System (FCSS)

in October 2025.

It enables near-real-time foreign-currency settlement in GIFT-IFSC and is intended to strengthen India’s global financial competitiveness and autonomy.

46. Cause → Development → Effect → Significance

Cause

India’s digital-payment ecosystem is expanding at unprecedented speed.

Development

RBI responded through:

UPI expansion
Payments Vision 2028
DPIP
Continuous cheque clearing
ISO 20022 migration
NGRTGS upgrade
Cross-border UPI linkages
Cybersecurity measures
Payment-system supervision

Effect

The payment ecosystem becomes:

faster + more interoperable + more secure + more international

Significance

The RBI is no longer merely regulating payment transactions.

It is actively shaping a national digital-payment infrastructure.

47. Most Important Numbers to Memorise

Topic	FY 2025-26 figure
Cashless transaction volume growth	26.8%
Cashless transaction value growth	13.2%
UPI volume growth	30.0%
UPI value growth	20.6%
UPI share of retail transactions	~86%
UPI volume	24,16,169 lakh
UPI value	₹314.2 lakh crore
RTGS volume growth	15.7%
RTGS value growth	12.9%
NEFT volume	1,00,996 lakh
NEFT value	₹502.3 lakh crore
Digital-payment survey users	30,000+
Digital-payment survey merchants	10,000
Users adopting digital payments	52%
Merchants accepting digital payments	67%
DPIP Phase I	Smart Registry
Payments Vision 2028 issued	March 27, 2026
CTS continuous clearing Phase I	October 4, 2025
PRB came into effect	May 9, 2025
PSOs inspected	90
UPI QR countries listed	8
RBI-DPI frequency	Semi-annual
NGRTGS upgrade	3.0 → 4.0
IFS Cloud entities onboarded	9
ReBIT professionals	1,200+
.bank.in migration	Major domestic bank categories completed by March 2026
.fin.in	Planned for non-bank financial entities

48. High-Probability Exam Questions

Q1. When was Payments Vision 2028 issued?

Answer: March 27, 2026.

Q2. What share of retail payment transactions did UPI account for?

Answer: Nearly 86%.

Q3. By how much did UPI volume increase in FY 2025-26?

Answer: 30%.

Q4. What was UPI’s FY 2025-26 transaction value?

Answer: ₹314.2 lakh crore.

Q5. What was the growth in retail payment volume?

Answer: 26.8%.

Q6. What is DPIP Phase I?

Answer: Smart Registry.

Q7. What is planned under DPIP Phase II?

Answer: An AI/ML-based risk-scoring platform.

Q8. When did continuous clearing under CTS Phase I go live?

Answer: October 4, 2025.

Q9. Within what period must banks credit customer accounts after cheque settlement?

Answer: Within one hour of settlement.

Q10. What replaced BPSS?

Answer: Payments Regulatory Board (PRB).

Q11. When did PRB come into effect?

Answer: May 9, 2025.

Q12. How many PSOs were inspected by RBI during FY 2025-26?

Answer: 90.

Q13. Which countries had operational UPI QR-code merchant acceptance according to the Annual Report?

Answer: Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka and UAE.

Q14. What is the significance of .bank.in?

Answer: It is an exclusive internet domain for Indian banks intended to strengthen cybersecurity and reduce phishing/malicious activity.

Q15. What is planned through .fin.in?

Answer: An exclusive domain for other non-bank entities in the financial sector.

Q16. From which version to which version was NGRTGS upgraded?

Answer: 3.0 to 4.0.

Q17. What standard is central to the upgraded messaging architecture?

Answer: ISO 20022.

Q18. How many entities had been onboarded onto the IFS Cloud beta?

Answer: 9.

49. One-Minute Revision Sheet

Payments Vision 2028 → March 27, 2026

Cashless volume growth → 26.8%

UPI → +30% volume, +20.6% value

UPI retail share → ~86%

UPI value → ₹314.2 lakh crore

RTGS → +15.7% volume, +12.9% value

Digital-payment survey → 30,000+ users + 10,000 merchants

Digital adoption → 52% users

Merchant acceptance → 67%

DPIP Phase I → Smart Registry

DPIP Phase II → AI/ML risk scoring

CTS Phase I → October 4, 2025

Cheque credit → within 1 hour of settlement

BPSS → replaced by PRB

PRB → effective May 9, 2025

PSO inspections → 90

UPI QR → Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UAE

UPI-like infrastructure → Namibia + Peru

RuPay stack → Mauritius + UAE

NGRTGS → 3.0 → 4.0

NEFT → ISO 20022

IFS Cloud → 9 entities onboarded

ReBIT → 1,200+ professionals

.bank.in → banks

.fin.in → planned for non-bank financial entities

Global SFMS Hub → ISO 20022 cross-border messaging

Key Takeaways

India’s payment ecosystem continued its rapid digital transformation during FY 2025-26.
Cashless transaction volume increased 26.8%.
UPI volume grew 30%, while value increased 20.6%.
UPI accounted for nearly 86% of retail payment transactions.
Payments Vision 2028 was issued on March 27, 2026.
DPIP’s first phase — Smart Registry — became operational in August 2025.
DPIP Phase II will introduce an AI/ML-based risk-scoring platform.
Continuous cheque clearing under CTS Phase I went live on October 4, 2025.
Banks are required to credit customers within one hour of cheque settlement.
Payments Regulatory Board replaced BPSS with effect from May 9, 2025.
RBI inspected 90 payment-system operators during FY 2025-26.
UPI continued expanding internationally through bilateral and multilateral payment-system linkages.
UPI QR-based merchant acceptance was operational in eight jurisdictions listed by RBI.
NGRTGS was upgraded from 3.0 to 4.0.
All NEFT member banks completed migration of their CBS/middleware to ISO 20022.
The RBI’s IFS Cloud beta went live with nine entities onboarded.
The exclusive .bank.in domain strengthened the security architecture of Indian banking websites.
RBI plans .fin.in for other non-bank financial-sector entities.
The future direction of India’s payment system is clearly moving toward interoperability, AI-enabled fraud prevention, central-bank-money settlement, internationalisation and greater customer control.

Final Exam Perspective

For the RBI Grade B Promotion Exam, the most important way to understand this chapter is as a progression:

Digital adoption → UPI dominance → infrastructure modernisation → fraud intelligence → customer protection → internationalisation

The highest-priority facts are:

UPI ~86% retail share → Payments Vision 2028 → DPIP Smart Registry → AI/ML risk scoring → CTS continuous clearing → PRB replacing BPSS → UPI internationalisation → NGRTGS 4.0 → ISO 20022 → .bank.in → .fin.in.

But do not study these as isolated facts.

The deeper RBI policy objective is to build a payment ecosystem that is simultaneously:

Fast + Safe + Inclusive + Interoperable + International + Resilient.

That is the central theme of India’s payment-system strategy in the RBI Annual Report FY 2025-26.

Part 21 complete.