Expanding the scope of the UPI, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday said the payments interface system will also include pre-sanctioned credit lines issued by banks for transactions.

Earlier, only the deposited amount could be transacted through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system.

Now the scope of the UPI would include credit lines as a funding account, the RBI said in a circular on 'Operation of Pre-Sanctioned Credit Lines at Banks through UPI'.

"Under this facility, payments through a pre-sanctioned credit line issued by a scheduled commercial bank to individuals, with the prior consent of the individual customer, are enabled for transactions using the UPI system," the central bank said.

This can reduce the cost and help in the development of unique products for Indian markets.

The RBI has been keen to expand the scope of the UPI and in April proposed to enable it to transfer to/from pre-sanctioned credit lines at banks.

Savings accounts, overdraft accounts, prepaid wallets and credit cards can be linked to UPI.

Used for immediate money transfer through mobile devices round the clock, UPI transactions crossed the 10-billion-mark in August. The number of UPI transactions in July was 9.96 billion (996.4 crore) and 9.33 billion in June.