The total value of transactions using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) surpassed $100 billion for the month of October. This would mark a record for UPI payments, managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
421 crore transactions were successfully completed in the previous month, summing up transactions worth a value of Rs 7.71 lakh crore in rupees. Both these figures are the highest ever to be witnessed.
PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm were the flagbearers of these numbers reported in UPI transactions. PhonePe reported Rs. 3.06 lakh crore worth of transactions and Google Pay registered Rs 2.5 lakh crore of the same in the month of September. With a massive gap, Paytm Payments took the distant third place with Rs 53,793 crore worth of transactions. October data has not been released yet. Fintech app Cred reported Rs 9,614 crore worth of transactions in September, while NPCI’s BHIM reported Rs 7,538 crore.
From March to September 2021, the average monthly growth rate for UPI transactions was 5.8 percent. However, in October alone, transaction values increased by nearly 18 percent month over month. As per statistics, the UPI transaction value is predicted to surpass $ 1 trillion in FY22, which would embolden the homegrown Payment system with a major achievement.
Monthly transaction values have increased by over 79 percent since January 2021, which were Rs 4.31 lakh crore in the aforementioned month. Volumes have increased by more than 83 percent since January’s 230 crores. While it took nearly four years since the inception of UPI in 2016 for monthly transaction values to reach Rs 3.86 lakh crore in October 2020, they nearly doubled this month to reach Rs 7 lakh crore.
A lot of factors could have led to this surge, one of the major ones being the shopping spree that came knitted with the festive season. Moreover, a significant chunk of these purchases were e-commerce purchases, making UPI a very viable option for payment. The ease of payment with minimal contact and universal acceptance of the interface coupled with the rising demands has given way to its success. Increasing immunisation and easing restrictions have all favoured the festive market.
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest on September 29, NPCI MD and CEO Dilip Asbe had said that UPI would constitute close to 60 percent of overall NPCI transaction volumes in 2021.
He had added, “at the current pace, UPI can cross transactions worth $1 trillion a day in five years’ time but that efforts can be doubled up to achieve the milestone in just three more years.”