Banks’ Technical Problems Cause Mobile Payment Disruptions During UPI Outage
If you tried to make UPI payments from your phone on Tuesday night and received a payment failure alert, you’re not alone. The body, which uses UPI through several banks in the country, confirmed that the digital payment system was down due to technical issues at the banks’ end that forced the servers down. The problem was faced by people in major cities like Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and even Jaipur.
The development was further shown by the readings of the Downdetector platform, where the peak of the UPI outage report was on Tuesday between 19:00 and 21:00. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) also shared an update in its X release saying,
Regret inconvenience on UPI connectivity as few of the banks are having some internal technical issues. NPCI systems are working fine and we are working with these banks to ensure quick resolution.— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) February 6, 2024
UPI is used for mobile payments through apps like Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe and even some banking apps. But most of the UPI payments are processed through banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI and Axis. The UPI outage is most often attributed to either of these banks, and a statement issued by NPCI earlier on Tuesday confirms our suspicions without naming the parties involved.
And if that’s not enough, you’ll find people sharing their displeasure over the UPI outage on social media, especially those who didn’t have cash in their wallets and were stuck when the payment servers failed.
Had Pani puri today for Rs 20 but bank servers were down! Had to search my entire bag to find 20 rupees cash. Gpay ne bigad diya hai #hdfcbank #UPI #upidown #serversdown— Nishtha Pandey (@nishtha_pandey_) February 6, 2024
When you not carrying wallet and UPI servers are down #UPI #UPIdown pic.twitter.com/3A0mNBs5ev— Dilip Rangwani (@ItsRDil) February 6, 2024
UPI continues to garner huge numbers and many people have stopped using or even carrying cash as UPI payments have become ubiquitous in the country in recent years. So when such an event happens and banks’ UPI servers crash, people face problems while shopping or having meals.
