No and Yes.
IMO:
- UPI is not a product innovation. Account-to-Account payments based on mobile phone numbers / email addresses have been around in other countries for many years before UPI was launched e.g. PayM in UK, FiServ PopMoney in USA, M-PESA in Kenya. Besides, bulk of UPI volumes have come from migration of other cashless modes of payments like NEFT and NetBanking to UPI rather than by displacing cash, which was UPI’s charter.
UPI's performance is impressive but most of its volumes seem to be driven by displacement of pre-existing digital payment methods like IMPS, Net Banking & SIs. Keen to know how UPI is faring on its raison d'être of replacing cash.
— Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) March 28, 2019
That said,
- UPI is a distribution innovation. UPI arguably has a greater reach in terms of number of banks it covers in India than its counterparts do in their respective markets.
- UPI is a time and cost innovation. UPI was developed in arguably a fraction of the time and cost of its counterparts in other countries.