UPI failures drop sharply this festive season; SBI’s glitch rate falls to one-third of last year

UPI transaction failures fall

UPI payments were noticeably smoother during the festive season, with far fewer transaction failures due to server overloads, technical glitches, or bank downtimes, marking one of the most reliable festive cycles for UPI since 2022, a Moneycontrol analysis shows.

SBI leads improvement

The most significant gain came from State Bank of India, which saw its failure rate drop to 0.55 percent in October 2025 — nearly one-third of the 1.61 percent recorded during last year’s festive season and well below pre-Diwali 2023 levels.

Private-sector lenders continued to maintain extremely low technical declines. HDFC Bank held steady at 0.02 percent, while ICICI Bank improved to 0.01 percent from 0.04 percent a year earlier. Axis Bank recorded zero failures, down from 0.06 percent in October 2024.

PSU banks catching up

Public-sector banks, which typically record higher failure ratios, also showed notable progress.

Union Bank reduced its failure rate to 0.04 percent from 0.15 percent. Bank of Baroda improved to 0.04 percent from 0.06 percent. Indian Bank eased to 0.11 percent from 0.18 percent, while Canara Bank recorded a sharp drop from 0.29 percent to 0.06 percent.

The data suggests significant backend strengthening at many state-owned lenders during high-load periods such as Dhanteras and Diwali.

Small banks and regional lenders still under strain

Not all institutions shared in the gains. Punjab and Sind Bank saw failures surge to 4.98 percent — the highest among major lenders. Karnataka Gramin Bank and Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank also posted elevated ratios of 3–5 percent, reflecting continued infrastructure stress in smaller regional banks.

Payments banks and small finance banks showed mixed performance. India Post Payments Bank improved from 1.25 percent to 0.74 percent, and Jio Payments Bank from 1.23 percent to 0.37 percent. Airtel Payments Bank dropped to 0.06 percent from 0.19 percent, recording its strongest uptime in years.

However, Fino Payments Bank’s failure rate jumped to 1.86 percent, and AU Small Finance Bank rose to 1.81 percent from under 0.1 percent last year.