Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has crossed 900 million transactions for the first time in August 2019. With 918 million transactions worth over Rs 1,54,000 crore in August, UPI payments had a stellar run from June to August when it registered 754 million transactions worth Rs 1,46,566 crore. The NPCI regulated platform witnessed about 100 million transactions within the span of 30 days; from over 800 million in July to over 900 million in August. The payment mode is also giving stiff competition to mobile wallets and now reigns in higher valued person-to-person transactions averaging $32, according to a latest report by RedSeer.
Digital payments have witnessed wide adoption across India and within this fiscal, transactions worth over Rs 1,500 crore have already been done, according to government database on digital payments Digidhan. Also, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as the leading adopter of digital payment mode followed by Haryana. However, adoption of digital payments is dismal in several states including Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, among others.
Cashless transactions have now become simpler and convenient thanks to BHIM UPI. #DigitalIndia #InstantPayments #HighOnUPI #NPCI #BHIMUPI @dilipasbe pic.twitter.com/0SJ44HHjbL
— BHIM (@NPCI_BHIM) September 1, 2019
“UPI has a strong market share in higher value use cases,” business consulting firm RedSeer recently said in a report. The interface is also challenging mobile wallets in certain domains like recharge and SME merchants, where wallets have upper-hand. For bill payments, higher valued transactions and cashbacks, UPI is the preferred transaction medium, according to the RedSeer report.
UPI was first introduced in August 2016, merely few months before demonetisation, and had 21 banks initially on the platform. Over time, 120 banks have joined the platform allowing real time interoperable transactions for both consumers and merchants. Demonetization also gave a nudge to the platform along with digital wallets and now enjoys wide merchant adoption, a segment which was dominated by wallets earlier. UPI’s growth rate is evident from the fact that starting from 96:4 ratio in October 2016, not only has UPI closed the gap but now also dominated certain categories. The RBI watched interface now has over 80% of the share in categories including person-2-person payments, bill payments and cash backs.
