Outlook Business Desk
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), will disable recipient-initiated ‘pull’ transactions starting October 31, 2025, with a view to reduce frauds. Banks and financial technology (fintech) firms have been informed by the agency, according to The Economic Times.
NPCI has notified banks and third-party UPI service providers that it will discontinue pull payments, which have been limited to ₹2,000 per transaction since 2019, due to increasing fraud and misuse.
UPI supports two types of transactions: ‘push’ payments, initiated by the payer, and ‘pull’ payments, where the recipient requests money that the payer approves using their PIN. NPCI has decided to discontinue the pull payment feature.
In a pull payment, the recipient initiates the transaction by sending a collect request. The payer then approves the payment by entering their personal identification number (PIN), completing the transfer only after giving consent.
The pull method is increasingly misused by fraudsters who trick users into entering their pin and authorising fake requests, causing themselves significant monetary losses. This has prompted NPCI to remove the feature, to protect consumers.
Pull payments were originally designed for straightforward, everyday situations, such as friends splitting bills or sharing expenses. In these cases, one person could send a collect request or payment link after the event, which the other party would review and approve, making transactions simple and convenient.
Person-to-person pull transactions account for roughly 3% of total UPI transactions, making the suspension less impactful on the overall payments ecosystem, industry insiders told ET.
Fraudsters frequently pretend to be merchants to illegally get money from customers using pull payments. To prevent such misuse, NPCI may also closely monitor QR code-based payments from merchants who have not completed their know-your-customer (KYC) verification.
Frauds related to payment cards and internet banking more than doubled in FY25 to 29,000 cases, totaling ₹1,457 crore, up from 13,516 attacks worth ₹520 crore the previous year. Meanwhile, UPI recorded 19.4 billion transactions in July, including 7 billion person-to-person payments, highlighting rapid digital growth.