BHIM UPI Transactions Cross 1 Bn Mark In FY 2017-18

Marking another milestone, UPI enabled app BHIM  has recorded one billion transactions in FY 2017-18, crossing the value worth $15.36 Bn (INR 1 Tn).

In a tweet on Sunday, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) CEO Dilip Asbe said, “Goodbye 2017-18; NPCI processed BHIM UPI ~1 billion in volume and ~1 trillion rupees in value. 2018-19 brings in new players, use cases & superior UX.”

Post demonetisation, the digital payments have gain a quick pace in India. The increased adoption of the digital payment methods in the country can be substantiated by the data released by the RBI, which said that digital transactions in the country reached a record high of 1.11 Bn in January 2018, up by 4.73% from the 1.06 Bn mark touched in December last year.

Since its launch in 2016, the growth of UPI has been phenomenal since its launch. According to data released by the NPCI, 171.4 Mn UPI-transactions were reported in February 2018, a 13.5% jump in comparison to 151 Mn transactions reported in January 2018.

While the value stood at $2.9 Bn (INR 19,100 Cr), $2.4 Bn (INR 15,571.2 Cr), $2 Bn (INR 13,174.2 Cr) and $1.5 Bn (INR 9,669.3 Cr) for the month of February 2018, January 2018, December 2017 and November 2017 respectively.

Of the $2.4 Bn value of UPI-based transactions in January 2018, the government’s BHIM app accounted for over 9.57 Mn transactions worth upwards of $57 Mn (INR 3.65 Bn).

Prior to this in March, reports surfaced that NPCI is now planning to enable UPI-based payments for inward international transactions. This means, that the transactions, which were being done through Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and or National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), can now also be done using UPI.

Recently, NPCI mandated inclusion of Bharat QR code with UPI. In a notification, NPCI mandated all banks running the UPI applications to adhere to such guidelines by April 16. If the banks fail to do so, the ‘transactions might be declined for non-compliance’.

Other mandatory provisions include that “all UPI apps should allow fund transfer using any UPI payment address, respond to collect request from other UPI addresses and even generate as well as scan Bharat QR and UPI QR codes.”

The digital payments space in the country has seen entry of giants like Google, which introduced Google Tez; Facebook with its chat-based application WhatsApp has pivoted WhatsApp Pay, which is under beta stage at present and ecommerce giant Amazon, with its wallet Amazon Pay among others.

Indian giants in the space continue to be Paytm, which recorded 68 Mn UPI-based transactions on its platform in February 2018 along with homegrown ecommerce player Flipkart’s PhonePe among others.

A report by Credit Suisse predicted that India’s digital payments industry, which is currently worth around $200 Bn, is expected to grow five-fold to reach $1 Tn by 2023. While, the digital spending by consumers is expected to grow nearly 2.5 times to $100 Bn by 2020, according to a Google-BCG report.

With such promising growth of digital payments and increasing integration of BHIM UPI across the mediums in FY 2017-18, the growth of Indian digital payments space is bound to get more competitive.