NPCI BHIM Services, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is working with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority to enable National Pension System (NPS) distribution through the BHIM app, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is part of BHIM’s strategy to expand its financial services offerings and reposition itself from a reference UPI application into a stronger competitor in India’s digital payments market.

“PFRDA is working closely with BHIM to enable NPS account opening through the platform. The idea is to leverage the KYC already available with the bank linked to the BHIM account to facilitate seamless onboarding,” people aware of the development told FE. The service is yet to be formally launched but NPCI is planning for a grand launch shortly, the people cited above said.

BHIM’s financial services push comes amid a sharp rise in activity on the platform. The app recorded a 301% year-on-year increase in transaction volumes during FY26, with monthly volumes rising from 59 million transactions in April 2025 to 216 million transactions in March 2026. Transaction value more than doubled to ₹25,533 crore during the period.

The company is now looking to leverage its growing user base to offer wider suite of financial products beyond payments.

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NPCI BHIM Services did not respond to FE’s detailed questionnaire on NPS distribution and its broader financial services strategy till press time.

NPS is a defined-contribution retirement savings scheme, Introduced initially for new Central government employees and later expanded to all citizens in 2009. Over the years, NPS has evolved into a low-cost, market-linked retirement product combining features of mutual funds, provident funds and traditional pension schemes.

As of March 31, 2026, NPS assets under management stood at ₹16.69 lakh crore. State government subscribers accounted for 51% of the corpus, followed by Central government employees at 26% and corporate subscribers at 16%. The individual or ‘all citizens’ category contributed just over 5% of total assets, amounting to more than ₹82,000 crore.

Industry executives said enabling NPS account opening through BHIM could pave the way for other payment platforms to enter the segment, potentially accelerating retail adoption of the pension scheme. “If successful, it could encourage other UPI platforms, which collectively have more than 35 crore unique users, to offer NPS account opening as well,” an industry executive said.

At present, individuals can open NPS accounts primarily through platforms operated by PFRDA, NSDL, CAMS, KFin Technologies and banks. While payment applications such as Google Pay, PhonePe and BHIM already allow contributions to existing NPS accounts through Bharat Connect, none currently offer fresh account opening.

The NPS launch plan comes as BHIM intensifies efforts to expand its user base and gain market share in the highly competitive UPI ecosystem.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2016 following the demonetisation, BHIM continues to account for less than 1% of UPI transaction volumes, trailing market leaders PhonePe and Google Pay, which together command nearly 80% of the market.

BHIM was later carved out into a separate NPCI subsidiary. In March this year, NPCI BHIM Services launched BHIM 3.0, expanding language support to more than 15 Indian languages and introducing features designed to improve usability in low-connectivity areas.

NBSL Managing Director and Chief Executive Lalitha Nataraj earlier told FE said that the company would gradually roll out value-added financial services on the platform, beginning with Rupay credit card distribution. BHIM currently offers consumer CIBIL scores, besides facilitating RuPay credit card issuance in partnership with Bank of Baroda, IDFC First Bank and Axis Bank.