UPI Now Available In 7 Countries, 45% Of All Real Time Digital Payments Happen In India: Sitharaman

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that UPI – Unified Payments Interface – is now available in seven countries adding 45 per cent of all real time digital payments are taking place in India.

Digital banking system needs to be robust, reliable and very user friendly with adequate firewall," the Finance Minister said.

“Banks will have to play crucial role in driving the agenda of making India a Viksit Bharat by 2047,” she further added.

Addressing the 90th Foundation Day of the Bank of Maharashtra , a public sector lender, Sitharaman said that banks will be required to give strong momentum to the infrastructure sector, ensure the availability of need-based funding to MSMEs, bring unbanked population under the ambit of formal banking channels, and help increase insurance penetration.

She noted that technology is changing the banking landscape as it provides a secure and easy-to-navigate digital banking experience to all customers.

However, she added that "you (banks) cannot have a digital system which somewhere gets hacked, and the entire system and the trust which is laid on it getting compromised. So you need to have a robust and resilient system for which every now and then you need to make sure that the firewalls are adequate, any emergency drill which you need to do, what if situation so you know to handle if there is an emergency in terms of digital insecure incidents".

With inputs from PTI