The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has directed banks to limit the use of check transaction status APIs, following the April 12 UPI outage that left millions unable to complete transactions. The directive aims to monitor and moderate API requests, preventing excessive system traffic that contributed to the disruption.
Banks have been instructed to initiate the first check transaction status API 90 seconds after a transaction’s initiation or authentication, with subsequent checks allowed after 45 to 60 seconds based on NPCI’s revised guidelines. Banks may perform a maximum of three check transaction status API requests, ideally within two hours of the original transaction.
Payment service provider (PSP) banks must audit their API requests immediately using a Cert-in empanelled auditor, with annual audits mandated thereafter. They have also been directed to restrict high-frequency repeat API calls for the same transaction to prevent overload on UPI systems.
In case of U48 errors (where the Transaction ID is not found in the UPI system) within two hours of the original transaction, banks must refer to NPCI’s settlement files, accessible to payee, payer, or PSP banks after the settlement cycle completes. Alternatively, they may initiate a single check transaction status API via Unified Dispute and Issue Resolution (UDIR), which interacts with UPI Backoffice (URCS) to retrieve final settlement data.
The April 12 nationwide outage disrupted digital payments, retail transactions, and bill payments, affecting major banks including SBI, ICICI, and HDFC. NPCI’s intervention seeks to improve stability across the UPI network, ensuring seamless operations while reinforcing security measures to prevent similar disruptions in the future.
