Govt-Backed UPI Takes Small Leap, Records 674 Mn Transactions In February

Indian government-backed instant real time payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has clocked in 674.19 Mn transactions in February 2019, according to the data released by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).  This is just 0.3% rise from January where it recorded 672 Mn transactions.

The month of February which has only 28 days, recorded more than 10.9% average daily transaction growth. The value of the transaction for the month stood at 1.06 Lakh Cr which is slightly lower than 1.09 Lakh Cr in January.

According to the available data, UPI recorded a year on year growth by almost 300% from February 2017 when it clocked in 171 Mn transactions.

The online payment sector in India has been recording constant growth with increasing penetration of internet and smartphones. The space is currently dominated by Alibaba-backed Paytm, Flipkart-owned PhonePe and Google-owned GPay.

Earlier it was reported that, as of January 2019, Paytm recorded 221 Mn transactions while PhonePe and Google Pay clocked nearly 220 Mn transactions each. Interestingly this leaves barely 11 Mn transactions for other players such as Amazon Pay, Freecharge, Mobikwik etc.

Moreover, the NPCI developed UPI is also on its way to receive a massive boost in its total number of transactions as major internet companies such as Ola, Uber, Amazon Pay and Samsung Pay are looking to float their own UPI handles.

While UPI continues to take small, large leaps in the digital transaction segment, the government’s UPI-based mobile payment app BHIM continues to witness a decline in the number of transactions made on its platform.

According to the data, BHIM recorded 12.83 Mn transactions in February compared to 13.98 Mn transactions in January and 17.06 Mn in December 2018. The value of the transaction for the month also declined to 5,624.21 Cr from 6,202.51 Cr in January. According to Credit Suisse, India’s digital payments industry will grow five-fold to reach $1 Tn by 2023.

In order to further ensure the wide adaptation of UPI, the NPCI also launched version 2.0 of UPI in July 2018, which included additional features such as generating collect payment requests along with invoice/ bill attachment, a one-time mandate with block functionality, signed intent/quick response code and others.

Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp is also eyeing the digital payment space in India as it waits for a green signal from the government to launch its WhatsApp Pay. In January, the Supreme Court had asked Reserve Bank of India to check the company’s compliance to data localisation norms for setting up of its proposed payments business.