Spike Of 240 Mn Mobile-Based Digital Payment Transactions In June, Reveals RBI

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the digital payments ecosystem. As per the data revealed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday (15 September), a total of 1.66 Bn transactions worth INR 5.99 lakh Cr were done via mobile-based banking and payment application in June which has increased from the transactions that happened in February. In February, 1.42 Bn transactions of INR 5.25 lakh Cr were processed.

The apex bank initiated tracking this data from July 2011.

In July 2019, the data showed that 1.17 Bn transactions worth INR 5.33 lakh crore were processed.

Traditional payment channels such as debit card, credit card, and net banking saw a downfall in transaction in the month of June due to muted commercial activity, the data showed. Only 430 Mn card transactions worth INR 1.05 lakh Cr were done from debit and credit cards in June.

According to the RBI estimates, total digital transactions in volume terms recorded a growth rate of 58.8 % during 2018-19, on top of a growth of 50.4 % during 2017-18. The RBI says digital transactions in value terms grew by 19.5 percent during 2018-19, compared to the growth of 22.2 percent during 2017-18.

As per the digital payments dashboard maintained by the IT ministry, UPI recorded 1.34 Bn transactions worth INR 2,61,835 Cr in June 2020, while it saw 1.23 Bn transactions worth INR 2.18 Lakh Cr in May 2020 for an average transaction size of INR 1,769.

UPI transactions came down to 990 Mn transactions in April, against 1.25 Bn in March. The value of transactions also fell reaching INR 1.51 Lakh Cr in April, against INR 2.06 Lakh Cr in March 2020.

For June 2020, excluding the BHIM app, UPI apps facilitated 1.32 Bn transactions with a cumulative value of INR 2,55,773 Cr. This averages to INR 1,937, which is a significant bump up in terms of the average size of a UPI transaction from May’s INR 1,769.

An RBI report also noted that the fintech sector is a “very strong attractor” of foreign capital into India, with an estimated investment of more than $2 Bn in the last two years. The industry has spent more than INR 2,000 Cr in the last 2-3 years to promote digital payments and customer incentives and continues to invest about INR 1000 Cr on capex annually.

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