The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) released a new notice earlier this month announcing new compliance guidelines. The new rule targets all members of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and states that any transaction identifier (ID) containing a special role will be rejected starting February 1. This notice is designed to ensure compliance with technical specifications that meet. UPI was first implemented in March 2024. This means that UPI platforms that continue to publish special roles in transaction IDs will witness a lot of failures.
NPCI releases new compliance guide for UPI platform
In a notice released on January 9, NPCI detailed the new compliance guidelines. The agency released a guide to the entire UPI ecosystem on March 28, 2024, advising them to stop using special roles in transaction IDs. NPCI said in its latest notice that while the problem has been largely resolved, some participants remain non-compliant.
Now, NPCI sets a deadline for February 1 (Saturday), and any transaction ID containing a special role will not be completed and payment will be denied.
This compliance requirement does not require any action from the end user. However, both merchants and users should make sure that the transaction ID does not contain special characters, otherwise payment may be rejected. Updating its UPI application to the latest version may also help avoid any unexpected failures and errors.
NPCI stressed that it has been working with last year’s ecosystem to help UPI players adapt to the new guide. The decision to move simple alphanumeric characters is to simplify transaction IDs and make storing and tracking transactions easier.
It is worth noting that the UPI transaction ID must also be unique and is up to 35 characters long to meet the technical requirements of NPCI. The rule has also been granted to banks and other payment services as well as to UPI platforms.
