NPCI Tightens UPI Collect and Autopay Rules Amid Rising Fraud Risks

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is moving to strengthen safeguards around Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Collect and Autopay features following a surge in fraud cases linked to misuse of delayed approvals, misleading mandates, and social-engineering tactics.

According to industry sources, NPCI has proposed tighter controls to reduce unauthorized debits and curb deceptive practices that exploit users’ trust in UPI workflows. The changes are aimed at closing gaps that fraudsters have used to trick customers into approving collect requests or unknowingly setting up recurring mandates.

Under the proposed framework, NPCI is expected to introduce clearer consent flows and enhanced disclosures for Collect requests, including more explicit information on the payee, purpose, and amount before approval. Time-bound validity for pending Collect requests may also be shortened to prevent old or forgotten requests from being exploited later.

For UPI Autopay, additional checks are likely to be mandated at the time of registration and execution. These could include stronger authentication for high-value mandates, clearer notifications before debits, and tighter limits on mandate modification without fresh user consent. Banks and payment apps may also be required to improve real-time alerts and dispute-resolution timelines.

The move comes amid a broader rise in digital payment fraud driven by phishing, fake customer-care calls, and app-cloning scams. Regulators and banks have increasingly emphasized that while UPI has transformed payments with speed and convenience, security controls must evolve at the same pace.

NPCI’s tightening of rules is expected to increase compliance requirements for banks and fintechs, but industry players say the measures are necessary to preserve trust in India’s digital payments ecosystem. For users, the changes aim to make consent more transparent, reduce accidental approvals, and strengthen protection against increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts.