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ULI: Building India’s Credit Infrastructure, the Way UPI Built Payments

Infrastructure

Innovation

22 Jul 2025

5 min read

ULI: Building India’s Credit Infrastructure, the Way UPI Built Payments

^{ULI: Building India’s Credit Infrastructure, One Reliable Layer at a Time}

When India launched UPI in 2016, headlines applauded the ease of instant app-based payments. But the true breakthrough happened behind the curtain—in the complex world of secure switches, interoperable protocols, and compliance-ready systems. Fast forward to FY 2024–25, UPI now processes 185.8 billion transactions, accounting for over 83.4% of all retail digital payments in India. This success didn’t just happen—it was engineered.

As India introduces ULI (Unified Lending Interface), a platform aiming to revolutionize digital lending, those same backend lessons must be embraced again. ULI goes beyond API integration. It’s an ambitious framework designed to provide real-time access to verified data such as land records, tax filings, Aadhaar-linked KYC, and even milk pouring history, enabling smarter, faster, and more inclusive lending decisions.

^{Why ULI Must Be Built on Trust-First Infrastructure}

Unlike UPI, ULI’s success hinges even more critically on three foundational layers:

Secure Data Transport: Borrower information must move safely between parties—without risk of leaks or tampering.
Consent Orchestration: Permissions must be handled in real-time, across institutions and systems.
Risk Controls: Fraud prevention and data misuse safeguards must be baked in from day one.

A March 2025 BharatLoan blog highlights these very concerns, emphasizing that “ULI’s success still depends on resolving implementation challenges in security, regulation, and integration.”

^{The Vision Behind ULI}

Announced by the Reserve Bank of India at the RBI@90 Global Conference in August 2024, ULI’s mission is to bring frictionless credit access to a billion Indians. Its pilot—initially called the Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit—focuses on empowering underserved communities: smallholder farmers, MSMEs, and rural borrowers who face systemic obstacles due to data fragmentation.

India Today notes that ULI could be transformative for agriculture and micro-enterprises, enabling formal credit access to borrowers without traditional documentation. As of mid-2024, over 30 banks and NBFCs are actively participating in pilot programs.

^{Global Lessons: Backend Strength Over Frontend Hype}

UPI’s story teaches us that scalability requires robust plumbing. Similar patterns emerged globally:

Brazil’s Pix flourished because its backend was managed centrally, ensuring real-time, interoperable systems with minimal fraud.
UK’s Open Banking, by contrast, faltered due to inconsistent integrations and weak consumer protections—limiting uptake to just 2–3% of all payments, despite years of effort.

Clearly, public fintech initiatives succeed only when built on trustworthy, auditable infrastructure.

^{ISG: The Quiet Builders Behind India’s Financial Rails}

For over two decades, In-Solutions Global (ISG) has quietly powered India’s digital finance ecosystem. From switching millions of transactions daily to enabling UPI through RuPay Credit Cards for rural banks, ISG’s real value lies in its invisible infrastructure.

Whether it’s secure data switching, KYC authentication, or consent orchestration, ISG brings unparalleled experience to support both public and private institutions in building systems that scale with security.

^{ULI Needs the Same Groundwork}

ULI isn’t just a fintech product. It’s a nationwide infrastructure mission. While front-end tools like scoring engines and borrower dashboards are critical, they rest on the foundation of secure digital plumbing. That’s where ISG fits in—with its battle-tested systems for API standardization, fraud detection, and real-time integration.

Just as NPCI played a pivotal role in UPI, ULI’s success will require silent enablers like ISG who specialize in backend scale, compliance, and uptime.

^{The Future of Credit Depends on What’s Beneath}

India’s next leap in credit inclusion won’t be determined by sleek dashboards. It will be determined by whether every disbursal is secure, compliant, and instant. If UPI was India’s payment highway, ULI is its credit superstructure.

This is our opportunity to build it right—quietly, securely, and at scale.

And when the next billion borrowers access credit with confidence, it’ll be because someone invested wisely in the invisible layers that make it possible.