SBI chairman CS Setty announced on 28 September 2026 that the bank and NPCI will not pass the new MDR onto retail customers or small merchants, with a system‑driven calculation ready by Oct 15.
The regulator has estimated that 96% of UPI transactions will be exempt from MDR, covering person‑to‑person transfers and person‑to‑merchant payments up to ₹2,000. Setty said the bank is developing technology to auto‑identify these carve‑outs, which will be live by the MDR launch date.
Setty sees UPI as a point‑of‑sale credit platform, aiming to offer credit lines through Kisan Credit Card, mudra loan, and overdraft against mutual funds. He noted that SBI, already the largest remitter on UPI, plans to leverage Yono to deepen this credit network, turning the app into a daily touchpoint for farmers and small businesses.
Yono currently boasts 10 crore registrations, with 5 crore active banking users, yet handles only 1–2 lakh UPI transactions a day. The bank targets five crore daily transactions by 2028, a move that would place Yono among the top five UPI apps and expand SBI’s digital‑payments ecosystem. The plan also includes scaling merchant acquisition to 60 lakh merchants and 13 crore monthly transactions across offline and online channels.
Despite the West Asia conflict, SBI’s capital expenditure has shown resilience, with ongoing investment in power and other sectors. Setty said that the bank’s capex momentum remains unaffected, reinforcing the broader economic stability that supports the digital‑payments strategy. The next milestone is the Oct 15 launch of the MDR calculation system, after which banks will roll out the pass‑on safeguards nationwide.