India Payments: Where’s the Money? Decoding Payment Platforms- Key takeaways from our webinar

Research evidence excerpt

India Payments: Where’s the Money? Decoding Payment Platforms- Key takeaways from our webinar

18 June 2026

India Financials

India Payments: Where’s the Money? Decoding Payment

Platforms- Key takeaways from our webinar

India’s digital payments ecosystem has scaled at a pace few global markets have matched Pranav Gundlapalle

+91 226 842 1407 — yet the economics underpinning the sector remain surprisingly opaque. Beneath the

pranav.gundlapalle@bernsteinsg.com headline growth in UPI volumes and merchant acceptance lies a more fundamental debate:

are payment platforms building durable financial infrastructure with meaningful monetization

Ishan Mittal levers, or operating in a business that is ultimately trending toward commoditization? We

+91 226 842 1442

ishan.mittal@bernsteinsg.com hosted a webinar with a senior Payments and Fintech leader, Mr. Saurabh Mittal, unpacking

how payment platforms create value across merchants, consumers and financial institutions

Anirudh Gupta — and where the real profit pools may ultimately reside. We outline our key takeaways below:

+91 226 842 1456 (Link to the webinar deck)

anirudh.gupta@bernsteinsg.com

UPI has evolved from a domestic innovation into a globally significant payments rail:

India’s UPI ecosystem now processes transaction volumes comparable to — and in some

cases exceeding — global card networks on a daily basis. Importantly, India alone accounts

for more than half of global real-time digital payment volumes, highlighting both the scale

and structural uniqueness of the country’s payments infrastructure.

UPI’s structural advantage lies in its materially lower cost architecture versus cards:

Real-time settlement, interoperable QR acceptance, and zero MDR for most merchant