UPI technical declines among India’s 20 largest remitter banks rose to 0.24% in September 2026 from 0.18% in August, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). ICICI Bank recorded the highest technical decline rate in the group at 0.73%, while State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Indian Overseas Bank also saw their rates more than double.
Technical declines are UPI payments that fail because of problems on the system side, such as a bank’s servers being unavailable or a network failure at the bank or at NPCI. They are separate from business declines, where a payment is rejected because the customer entered a wrong UPI PIN, gave incorrect beneficiary details or crossed a transaction limit. The rise comes even as UPI volumes hit fresh highs, with UPI touching a record 25.47 billion transactions in October 2026.
Which banks saw UPI technical declines rise in September?
Four banks saw their technical decline rates more than double between August and September 2026, as per NPCI data:
- ICICI Bank: 0.73%, up from 0.03% in August.
- State Bank of India: 0.38%, up from 0.10%.
- Kotak Mahindra Bank: 0.36%, up from 0.02%.
- Indian Overseas Bank: 0.24%, up from 0.06%.
The 20 banks together handled 23.47 billion UPI transactions as remitters in September, down from 23.92 billion in August. The figures cover only these 20 banks and not the entire UPI network.
Business declines highest at payments banks
Business declines across the 20 banks edged up to 10.88% in September from 10.85% in August. Fino Payments Bank had the highest business decline rate in the group at 24.26%, followed by Airtel Payments Bank at 23.20% and India Post Payments Bank at 18.88%.
Because business declines largely reflect customer-side errors such as a wrong PIN or limit breaches, they point to user education and app design rather than system outages. Technical declines, on the other hand, sit squarely with the bank’s and the network’s infrastructure.
Why UPI technical declines matter for banks
A failed UPI payment caused by a bank’s systems hurts customer trust and pushes users towards other banks or apps. For regulators, uptime of bank switches and core systems is now a key part of payment system resilience, a theme that has also driven the NPCI and IIIT Hyderabad partnership on cybersecurity across digital payments.
The pressure on banks’ technology stacks is also growing as more players join the network. New entrants such as Fibe, which launched UPI payments after NPCI granted it TPAP approval, add volume that must be cleared through the same remitter and beneficiary banks. Recurring outages have drawn regulatory attention before, as seen when the RBI questioned HDFC Bank over recurrent online banking disruptions.
Monthly bank-wise UPI performance data is published by NPCI’s UPI ecosystem statistics.
Key takeaways
- UPI technical declines at the top 20 remitter banks rose to 0.24% in September 2026 from 0.18% in August.
- ICICI Bank had the highest technical decline rate at 0.73%; SBI, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Indian Overseas Bank also more than doubled.
- Fino Payments Bank (24.26%) and Airtel Payments Bank (23.20%) recorded the highest business decline rates.
FAQ
What is a UPI technical decline?
A technical decline is a UPI payment that fails because of a system problem, such as a bank server being down or a network failure at the bank or NPCI, rather than a customer error.
Which bank had the highest UPI technical decline rate in September 2026?
ICICI Bank had the highest technical decline rate among the 20 largest remitter banks at 0.73%, up from 0.03% in August, as per NPCI data.
Featured image: Indian Bank BHIM UPI QR code standee at Shaurya Smarak, Bhopal. Photo: Suyash.dwivedi via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
