Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Shirish Chandra Murmu has shared a strong message about the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Speaking at the Global Fintech Festival 2026, he explained that while UPI is a huge success, its massive size now creates a bigger responsibility for banks. If the system fails or gets hacked, the damage will be much larger than just one failed payment.

In the financial year 2025-26, UPI processed about 24,162 crore transactions. The total value of these transactions was a massive ₹314 lakh crore. This means UPI now accounts for 85 percent of all digital payment volumes in India. Currently, India handles nearly half of the entire world’s real-time payment transactions. While this is an achievement, the Deputy Governor warned that 'scale changes the nature of risk.'

For bank officers and staff, this means a shift in focus toward four main areas: operational resilience (staying running during stress), cyber resilience (protection from hackers), fraud prevention, and customer protection. Because UPI works 24x7x365, banks must build systems that can handle extreme stress, not just normal daily traffic. If there is a technical glitch, banks must be honest and tell customers immediately.

Cybersecurity is no longer just a job for the IT department. The RBI official stated it is now a risk for the whole bank. One weak link in the system can affect many others. To help, the RBI is promoting the '.bank.in' domain so customers can easily tell real bank websites apart from fake ones. The RBI is also using AI and machine learning through the 'MuleHunter.AI' project to catch mule accounts (fake accounts used to hide stolen money).

Fraud is a growing worry, especially social engineering (tricking people into giving details) and account takeovers. The RBI is working on a 'Digital Payments Intelligence Platform' to help banks, fintechs, and police work together. The Deputy Governor noted that since UPI is so fast, there is very little time to stop a fraud once it starts. Therefore, monitoring transactions in real-time is now 'non-negotiable' for all banks.

Finally, the RBI touched upon digital lending. While apps make it easy to give small loans, the goal should be to help new customers who never had credit before. He reminded bankers that while they may partner with fintech apps, the bank is still the one responsible for the service. Technology can help distribute a loan, but the bank cannot pass its responsibility to a software company.