India, Sept. 24 -- A market-driven economic model for UPI is essential to fund escalating cybersecurity, scalability, and infrastructure costs, UPI operator NPCI's MD and CEO Dilip Asbe said.

Speaking at the 13th SBI Banking & Economics Conclave 2026, Asbe defended the move to introduce merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on UPI. The MDR regime will come into effect from October 15.

Asbe said that the tools currently available to attackers are more powerful than those deployed within parts of the payments ecosystem. He added that banks and payments companies would need to continuously invest in AI to protect their systems and retain users' trust.

"The ability and the tools with the hackers are really very powerful compared to what we ...