The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on September 18, 2026, issued the UPI Consolidated Circular Version 1.0.
The following has been stated:
• The Circular consolidates the UPI Operating Circulars issued up to July 31, 2026. The circular governs participation in and access to UPI and applies to all UPI Members, UPI Application Providers, and other system participants. It consolidates operational requirements covering UPI participation, user onboarding, UPI IDs/UPI Number, merchant transactions, biometric authentication, data privacy, API usage, UPI branding, AutoPay, One Time Mandate, Reserve Pay, UPI Circle, UPI Lite, international payments, RuPay Credit Card on UPI, Credit Line/PPI on UPI, settlement, reconciliation and dispute management. The Operating Circulars listed in Annexure G are withdrawn, while other applicable NPCI guidelines and regulatory requirements remain in force.
• The circular also prescribes operational and security requirements such as API response-time limits and usage controls, transaction-status checks, monitoring of API traffic, masking of sensitive information, user consent for location/biometric authentication, interoperability requirements and merchant onboarding controls.
• It further specifies UPI Number lifecycle and consent requirements, including disabling inactive UPI IDs/Numbers after one year and restrictions on re-registration of deregistered numbers. UPI Application Providers must also comply with updated branding requirements, including revised Merchant QR requirements for QR codes issued or replaced from December 1, 2026.
[Notification No. - NPCI/UPI/CC/01]
