Mastercard says UPI is expanding India’s digital-payments market, not displacing cards

Mastercard India executive Gautam Aggarwal said UPI has broadened digital-payment adoption and awareness rather than becoming a direct challenge to the card network. He highlighted remaining headroom for penetration, consumer education and fraud prevention as payment volumes rise.

— Source publishedThu, 6 Aug, 2026, 14:43 IST·First seen Thu, 6 Aug, 2026, 15:01 IST·Source ET Small Business

What happened

Mastercard India executive Gautam Aggarwal said UPI complements rather than challenges Mastercard, expanding digital-payment adoption and consumer awareness. He

Key facts

  • 3rd India International FinTech Festival 2026
  • nearly three decades of cybersecurity investment
  • Rs 29.9 lakh crore in July
  • 23.66 billion transactions

Why this matters

Prioritize partnerships with UPI ecosystem players, banks and merchants that combine card-network capabilities with UPI-scale distribution, especially in cybersecurity, trust and merchant enablement.

What to watch

  • Growth rate of UPI credit transactions and the number of issuing banks enabling credit-on-UPI
  • Changes in RBI rules on MDR, credit-card-on-UPI economics, tokenization, fraud liability or payment-data use
  • Card spending growth in e-commerce, travel, premium retail, subscriptions and EMI versus UPI growth in the same categories
  • Merchant checkout behavior, including UPI-only incentives, card surcharges or card-funded promotional offers
  • Reported digital-payment fraud losses, scam volumes and adoption of device binding, risk scoring and tokenization
  • New Mastercard partnerships with Indian banks, fintechs, acquirers, retailers or UPI ecosystem participants
  • Mastercard is likely to emphasize interoperability with UPI-linked merchant ecosystems while targeting categories where cards offer credit, rewards, dispute resolution and cross-border utility.
  • Banks may bundle cards with UPI payment journeys, using UPI for acquisition and transaction data while reserving card credit lines for higher-value and revolving-spend customers.
  • Large retailers and marketplaces may add payment-choice steering: UPI for low-cost checkout, cards for EMI, loyalty offers, subscriptions and high-ticket baskets.
  • Acquirers and PSPs are likely to sell fraud-prevention, tokenization and reconciliation tools as merchants manage higher digital-payment volumes across multiple rails.
  • Card networks may seek more co-brand, premiumization and commercial-payment partnerships to offset slower growth in domestic debit-like transaction use cases.

Also reported by