New NPCI rules limit UPI status checks to avoid repeat of outage – CNBC TV18

The Nationwide Funds Company of India (NPCI) has requested banks to instantly prohibit the use of the ‘Test Transaction’ API for UPI funds.

This transfer follows a 5-hour UPI outage on April 12, the longest in over three years.

In a round dated April 26, NPCI careworn extreme status test calls by banks for overloading the system. These repeated checks had been triggered when banks failed to obtain transaction status updates from beneficiary banks.

NPCI has now mandated stricter rules:

• Banks should wait no less than 90 seconds after initiating a UPI transaction earlier than making the primary status test.
• Members can begin checks after 45 to 60 seconds.
• Banks should limit themselves to a most of three test calls, ideally inside two hours of the unique transaction.

The funds physique has additionally requested banks to audit their techniques instantly utilizing CERT-In empanelled auditors. Audits should be repeated yearly.

NPCI clarified that it had not set fee limits on these API calls, as managing the frequency was the banks’ duty. Nonetheless, it’s now contemplating implementing fee limiters on sure UPI APIs after consulting its steering committee.

Banks often ship a number of status checks after they don’t obtain a affirmation from the beneficiary financial institution—usually due to server points. PSP (Fee Service Supplier) banks provoke these checks to decide whether or not to course of additional transactions.

NPCI operates UPI, India’s most generally used digital fee system, and defines how software program functions work together utilizing APIs.

A firewall often controls such site visitors, however NPCI famous it had not enforced one for these calls till now.