Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in Australia: 2025 Guide

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has been the buzzword in global fintech circles, with India’s real-time payment system capturing the world’s imagination. In 2025, as Australia pushes to modernise its own payments landscape, UPI’s success story is more relevant than ever. But what exactly is UPI, why does it matter for Australians, and how might our own digital payment future be shaped by its example?

What is UPI? And Why Should Australians Care?

UPI, or Unified Payment Interface, is India’s instant payment system—allowing seamless, real-time money transfers between banks via smartphones, QR codes, and virtual IDs. Launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016, it now processes over 12 billion transactions monthly in 2025, making it the world’s largest real-time payments ecosystem.

Why is this significant for Australians? Our own New Payments Platform (NPP) has made strides, but UPI’s scale, interoperability, and user-centric design have set a new global benchmark. Key features include:

• 24/7 instant transfers: No waiting for business hours or batch settlements.
• Interoperable: Works across banks, apps, and merchants—no walled gardens.
• Low transaction costs: Keeps digital payments accessible for all.
• QR Code ubiquity: Pay at a market stall or a megastore with the same ease.

Australia’s NPP and PayID have introduced some of these features, but adoption and innovation at the grassroots level still lag behind UPI’s meteoric growth.

UPI’s Global Expansion and What It Means for Australian Fintech

In 2025, UPI is rapidly expanding beyond India’s borders. Countries like Singapore, the UAE, France, and even the UK now accept UPI payments from Indian tourists and residents. The global diaspora and cross-border partnerships are fueling conversations about interoperability, open banking, and instant settlement standards.

For Australian fintechs and banks, UPI’s internationalisation is a wake-up call. Here’s how it’s shaping the conversation down under:

• Cross-border payments: Expect pressure to make remittances to and from Australia cheaper and faster—especially for students, migrants, and expats.
• API-driven innovation: UPI’s open API model has spurred a wave of fintech startups. Australian banks, often critiqued for their slow API rollout, are now racing to catch up.
• Open, competitive ecosystem: UPI’s success comes from allowing third-party apps (like Google Pay, PhonePe) to plug in and compete. The ACCC and Treasury are watching this closely as they review Australia’s own payments regulations in 2025.

Case in point: Several Australian fintechs are exploring partnerships with Indian payment giants to enable UPI QR code acceptance at Aussie retailers catering to international tourists and students.

Policy Shifts and the Road Ahead for Australia

2025 is a pivotal year for payments policy in Australia. The Federal Government’s Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payments System, released in February, prioritises speed, competition, and consumer choice. Among the highlights:

• Modernising payments infrastructure: Ongoing upgrades to NPP and PayID to support richer data, more use cases, and greater reliability.
• New licensing regime for digital wallets: Inspired partly by the UPI model, Australia is tightening rules to ensure security and interoperability among digital payment providers.
• Encouraging QR code payments: The Reserve Bank is working with the industry to standardise QR payments, aiming for the kind of widespread adoption seen with UPI.

Yet challenges remain. Australia’s banking sector is more concentrated, and regulatory caution means change can be slow. Still, with increasing migration and global trade ties with India and Southeast Asia, the pressure to adopt UPI-style features is mounting.

Will We See a ‘UPI for Australia’?

While it’s unlikely Australia will simply import UPI, the lessons are clear: open standards, fierce competition, and relentless focus on user experience win the day. Expect to see:

• Faster, more affordable cross-border payments—especially to Asia
• Broader QR code acceptance—from food trucks to luxury retailers
• New digital wallet players challenging the Big Four banks’ dominance
• Smarter, real-time fraud detection built into every layer of the system

For Australians, this means more choice, better value, and a payments experience that keeps pace with our global peers.