NPCI to roll out UPI Circle on September 2; key features, how it works, other key details

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) – which administers the infrastructure for electronic payments in the country – has announced a new payment solution that enables a payer to extend the authorisation to transact from their UPI account to other individuals under certain conditions. Called UPI Circle, the payment solution enables a secondary user to perform transactions from the payer’s account with minimum intervention and with adequate risk mitigations.

UPI Circle | How will it work?

Here are a few key points to know: 

Under the current UPI system, the user is required to have a bank account to be able to make transactions. UPI Circle will enable other users, who depend on the primary UPI user, for their daily payment needs. 

Here are the two types of users defined under the UPI Circle system: 

• Primary user: A UPI user who will delegate the authentication to make payment to a secondary user
• Secondary user: A UPI user who will be performing the payments with appropriate authorisation of the primary user

Here, the secondary user is an individual with or without a bank account linked to the UPI network.

This way, the control will reside with the primary user to make UPI transactions on behalf of their secondary users because they have a bank account and manage finances of a household. 

About 6 per cent of UPI users make large number of transactions mainly because they also make transactions on behalf of others, according to the NPCI website. 

UPI Circle “will allow (the) primary user to have the same control while offering more convenience while making delegated payments”, it mentions. 

UPI Circle | When will UPI Circle be launched? 

The feature will be rolled out on September 2. 

UPI Circle News | Will any transaction limits apply?

The feature will come with two payment delegation options: full and partial. 

The full payment delegation will come with a limit of Rs 15,000, while the partial payment delegation will not have the freedom to add PIN.