NPCI to Build AI Agent Registry Ahead of Agentic Payments on UPI
India's payments authority is building a registry to verify and monitor AI agents making transactions, as it prepares to roll out agentic payments on UPI.
India's payments authority is developing a registry to verify and monitor artificial intelligence agents that carry out transactions on its homegrown payments network, according to three people involved in the discussions.
The registry is set to be part of the National Payments Corporation of India's proposed Unified Agentic Protocol, which will assess AI agents that make payments on behalf of users. The people familiar with the plans could not be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
NPCI runs the country's retail payment systems, including the widely used Unified Payments Interface, and is preparing to introduce agentic payments on UPI. The registry will initially screen AI agents making payments on UPI, and its scope could later extend to cards, bill payments and other payment methods, according to a senior industry executive involved in the discussions.
NPCI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move places India alongside other governments and payments companies working on systems to identify and authenticate AI agents. China's Payment & Clearing Association, an industry body supervised by the central bank, has issued guidelines for AI-agent payments covering identification, security and risk controls. Amazon, Google and Microsoft have also built agent registries for agentic commerce.
NPCI's plans come amid growing scrutiny of rogue behaviour by agents at leading AI firms, including OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic.
Agentic payments on UPI would let AI agents make small, frequent digital payments without users approving each transaction, with groceries and other low-value purchases expected to be among the earliest uses. The system could eventually allow agents to act on more complex instructions, such as buying products when discounts reach a specified level or making investments when prices cross set thresholds, one of the sources said.
While agents would be indexed in the registry, questions such as liability for wrong or unauthorised payments will need to be addressed through regulation, another source said.