Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Aug 13: To tackle rising financial fraud, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has ordered banks and payment apps to stop processing all peer-to-peer (P2P) "collect requests" on the UPI platform starting October 1, 2025.

The “collect request” or “pull transaction” feature allows users to request money from another person through UPI, a tool often exploited by scammers to trick victims into authorizing payments. While P2P collect requests will be banned, merchants will still be able to send these requests to customers.

For example, apps like Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, and IRCTC send collect requests to users during payment, which users must approve by entering their UPI PIN. After October, such requests will only be permitted if sent by merchants.

NPCI’s circular states that from October 1, all member banks and UPI apps must stop initiating, routing, or processing P2P collect requests.

Currently, users can request up to Rs 2,000 per P2P collect transaction, with a daily limit of 50 successful transactions. These limits have already reduced fraud cases significantly compared to earlier days.

Collect requests are popular for reminding friends or relatives about owed money without extra messaging. Previously, small shopkeepers often used personal accounts for business and sent collect requests, but these are now considered merchant transactions by banks and apps.

UPI remains India’s top digital payment system, boasting around 400 million users. Transactions surged from 92 crore in 2017-18 to 18,587 crore in 2024-25, with transaction values growing from Rs 1.10 lakh crore to Rs 261 lakh crore. In July 2025 alone, UPI recorded nearly 1,946 crore transactions, marking a new monthly high.