UPI MDR: Radiant Cash, CMS Info Systems, ATM-related shares jump; here's why

Shares of cash management companies and select ATM-related stocks, including CMS Info Systems Ltd and Radiant Cash Management Services Ltd, gained sharply in Wednesday's trade after the government introduced a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on certain UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions.

CMS Info Systems jumped 7.37 per cent to hit a day's high of Rs 239 apiece, while Radiant Cash Management Services surged 8.87 per cent to Rs 39.28.

The stocks later pared some gains. CMS Info Systems was last trading 4.1 per cent higher at Rs 232.04, while Radiant Cash Management was up 4.76 per cent at Rs 37.60 on the BSE. SIS Ltd was trading 1.01 per cent higher at Rs 418.35.

Under the framework, a 0.4 per cent MDR will apply to person-to-merchant (P2M) UPI transactions above Rs 2,000 from October 15, 2026.

The charge will be capped at Rs 300 for transactions of Rs 75,000 and above. The MDR will be borne by merchants rather than consumers.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said the timeline would give acquiring banks, payment aggregators, fintech applications and corporate accounting platforms adequate time to update their software engines and billing systems.

After around six years of free use, regardless of size or type of payment, India has decided to ‌start charging merchants a fee of 0.4 per cent for transactions of more than Rs 2,000, known as MDR, with some exclusions, though person-to-person (P2P) transfers remain free.

In August, UPI processed a total of 2,450 crore transactions worth Rs 29.82 lakh crore for more than 55 crore users, official data show.

UPI has an 84 per cent share of India's digital payments by volume and a 49 per cent share of global real-time payment volumes, the government said.