On March 26, at around 7 PM, UPI experienced a significant outage that affected a wide range of financial institutions, including major players such as HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, among others. This disruption left many users unable to send or receive payments through UPI, throwing a wrench into daily activities and transactions for individuals and businesses alike. Thankfully, the issue was resolved by approximately 8:40 PM, with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) releasing an official statement regarding the cause of the outage.
According to a post by NPCI on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the organisation faced sporadic technical challenges that led to this temporary lapse in the functionality of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). These issues impacted both users and merchants, interrupting the seamless transaction experience that UPI is typically known for.
NPCI further assured the public that it has implemented through measures to tackle these technical hurdles, and the system has now been stabilised, allowing UPI services to operate efficiently once again.
Reports from DownDetector indicated that by 7:50 PM, around 2,750 complaints had been logged regarding UPI problems. Google Pay users represented 296 of these complaints, while Paytm users reported 119 issues. Additionally, State Bank of India (SBI) customers accounted for 376 complaints, many of which were related to issues with fund transfers and online banking services. Users on social media shared their surprise at experiencing UPI downtime for the first time, noting they had never encountered similar issues with banks or payment gateways before.
The outage also sparked a wave of memes on X (formerly Twitter). One user remarked, “UPI is down for the first time, and it’s already making an impact. Most of us have stopped carrying cash, and this downtime has created a do-or-die situation. Elders were right about carrying cash!”
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