ICICI Bank Starts Charging Payment Aggregators

• Currently, UPI transactions involving Payment Aggregators (PAs) that use ICICI Bank platform will be charged a transaction fee, starting 1 August 2025.
  
• Fee structure:
  
• 2 basis points (bps) per transaction (maximum to 6 ) when the PA is escrow compliant at ICICI.
• 4 bps per transaction (up to 10 rupiahs) in case there is no business of escrow relation.
  
  
• There are no charges when the transaction goes through immediately to the own account of an ICICI merchant and the bank earns interest on funds floating.

Users and merchants do not need to pay these charges directly, but this can indirectly impact these fees.

NPCI Rules for UPI from 1 August 2025

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched some important changes to enhance security and efficiency of UPI system in India:

A. Balance Checks Limits and Account View Limits

• Checks that are subject to balance now have a limit of 50 checks in a day.
• The display of bank account information (e.g. last 5 transactions) is restricted to 25 times per day.
  
  

B. Recipient Name Verification

• From 30 June 2025, all UPI apps will show the correct name as the beneficiary registered with the bank before the payment, which will reduce the possibility of fraud.
  
  

C. Autopay Timing & Limits

• Fixed time schedules has been introduced in cases of scheduled payments (e.g. EMIs, subscriptions) which will not be random times anymore.
• The number of retries or the failed auto-debit is also limited in order to avoid too many cases of failure and system overloads.
  
  

D. Chargeback Limits

• Each user can submit up to 10 claims of chargeback within a period of 30 days and up to 5 claims per recipient or an institution.

UPI Through Credit Lines (From 31 August)

• UPI credit payment capability launches from 31 August 2025, letting users pay using pre-approved credit lines from banks or NBFCs.
  
  
• Limits:
  
  
• ₹1,00,000 per day for UPI payments.
• ₹10,000 per day for cash withdrawals.
• 20 P2P transfers per day.

These changes support flexibility while keeping transactions secure.

Why These Changes Matter

• Improved System Reliability: Balance check limitations and time auto-pay serve to limit interaction with the servers and manage the load to minimize outage during high traffic periods.
• Enhanced Fraud Protection: Display of verified names of beneficiaries and restriction in the retrial attempts thwarts erroneous payments.
• Structured Auto-Pay Framework: Planning payments on a regular basis makes it less opaque and prevents abrupt deductions.
• Sustainable UPI Model: Banks such as ICICI are at this point monetizing the infrastructure of transactions but the users still get to have free access to UPI services as far as it is used personally.
  
  

What Remains Unchanged

Additionally, P2P and personal transactions remain free, and everyday UPI payments up to ₹2,000 via PPI may be subject to merchant interchange fees—not user fees.

How These May Impact You

• Users: No direct charges—but be mindful of balance check limits and scheduled payment timing.
• Merchants/Payment Firms: Aggregators are now faced with the charging by banks such as ICICI and this might increase operating costs or gradually increase the fees.
• Large-value PPI transactions: This type of payment may come at an interchange fee ( 0.5% to 1.1%) again depending on sector and provider.
  
  

Final Thoughts

Since 1 August 2025, UPI comes to a new stage:

• Timing features and strategic checks enhance the performance.
• The ICICI Bank also charges its aggregators and re-consideration of the revenues of the digital infrastructures is required.
• User experience remains free and seamless, especially for regular UPI users.
  
  

Stay alert to auto-pay settings and avoid overchecking balance to ensure smooth transactions. For more detailed guidance or customized help, feel free to ask!

FAQs

1. Will UPI payments cost users from 1 August?

Ans- No. End users and merchants won’t pay any charges for P2P or regular P2M UPI payments.

2. Who bears the new UPI charges?

Ans- Those payment aggregators that offer this routing of payments across the banks (GPay, phonePe, etc) will incur costs as they operate outside direct settlement into the accounts of ICICI bank.

3. Do the daily payment limits change?

Ans- No. The ₹1,00,000 daily limit remains unchanged for most banks. Caps for specific transactions like credit line UPI begin only later in August.

4. How do the new balance check limits affect me?

Ans- Viewing and refreshing the status of balance can have no more than 50 and 25 requests to see and refresh the information in linked accounts, correspondingly, respectively; Excessive displaying or updating the balances can lead to the failure or hindrance of access.

5. When will UPI payments via credit lines be live?Ans- UPI credit feature is Ans- launched on 31 August 2025, and it provides flexible