Visa and Mastercard's UPI ambitions could shake up India's payments market

The news: The Reserve Bank of India is reportedly drawing up plans to link credit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), industry executives aware of the matter told The Morning Context.

The central bank will make a decision before April, two of the executives said.

The background: The UPI, India's mobile bank-to-bank instant payments system, has become one of the country's most popular payment methods since its 2016 launch and has helped spur strong digital payments growth.