Mastercard’s South Asia chief Gautam Aggarwal says UPI has expanded consumer awareness and adoption of digital payments, creating a larger market for the industry, while cybersecurity and consumer education will be critical as India’s payments ecosystem scales further.
Mastercard does not view the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a competitive threat and instead sees India’s homegrown payments platform as an enabler that has helped accelerate the adoption of digital transactions across the country, a senior company executive said.
Gautam Aggarwal, Division President for South Asia and Country Corporate Officer, India, Mastercard, said national payment systems such as UPI have played an important role in educating consumers about digital payments and expanding the overall market.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 3rd India International FinTech Festival 2026, organised by ASSOCHAM, Aggarwal said the growth of UPI has complemented rather than challenged Mastercard’s business.
“We don’t see it as a challenge. We, in many ways, see it as complementary. The reality is UPI and national payment systems globally, for that matter, have actually increased the education of consumers in understanding the benefits and the fact that digital payments exist, and that has really allowed the market to become a much bigger playground,” Aggarwal said.
He added that UPI has been a significant enabler for the broader payments industry in India, saying Mastercard “couldn’t have been as big without” the expansion of the platform.
More from BusinessIndia has emerged as the world’s largest digital payments ecosystem in absolute terms, driven by the rapid adoption of UPI and other digital payment channels. However, Aggarwal said the country still has considerable room for further expansion when digital payment penetration is measured against the overall potential of the Indian market.
“While we like to talk about the fact that India is the world’s largest digital payments ecosystem today, in absolute terms we are, but in terms of relative penetration of what is in the country still available, we still have a long way to go,” he said.
Aggarwal said the industry is still “scratching the surface”, indicating that increasing digital adoption across consumers and businesses could provide another significant leg of growth for the payments ecosystem.
Cybersecurity becomes key as digital payments expand
With the rapid expansion of digital transactions, cybersecurity and fraud prevention are becoming increasingly important for payment companies and regulators.
Aggarwal said Mastercard has been investing in cybersecurity for nearly three decades and has stepped up those investments as the scale and complexity of digital payments have increased.
“We are probably one of the world’s oldest innovators and investors when it comes to cybersecurity. We’ve been innovating around cyber because we had to,” he said.
He said maintaining trust in payment systems requires companies to protect users against cyber fraud and prevent their networks from being misused for activities such as money laundering.
Mastercard has accelerated its cybersecurity push through a combination of acquisitions and internal innovation, according to Aggarwal.
At the same time, he stressed that stronger security measures need to be implemented without undermining the convenience that has helped drive digital payment adoption.
“We’ve been buying companies, we’ve been innovating internally. We’re making sure that when we are innovating in this space, we are not doing it in a way that creates friction because what’s important in today’s world is convenience, friction and security is all balanced,” he said.
Aggarwal also praised India’s regulatory framework for digital payments, describing it as among the strongest globally.
However, he said continued investment in consumer awareness and education will be crucial as the ecosystem expands. Educating users about safe payment practices and emerging fraud risks will be particularly important for maintaining consumer trust as more Indians shift towards digital transactions.
The comments come as India’s digital payments ecosystem continues to expand rapidly, with UPI becoming a central pillar of the country’s digital public infrastructure and significantly widening access to instant electronic payments.
