Term of the day: Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Photo: Sneha Srivastava/Mint

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system allows a bank customer to transfer money and make payments to another bank account on a real-time basis. While UPI uses the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service ) platform, unlike IMPS, UPI does not ask for details about the receiver’s bank account. All it requires is a UPI virtual ID which is like an email ID. Similarly, to receive payments, you just have to share your virtual ID.

Both the sender and receiver need to be on the UPI platform. UPI apps like BHIM app also allow transfer using the receiver’s bank account details like name, bank account number and IFSC code.