Mobile Wallets Arrest Decline In Payments, Record 12% Growth In March

The digital payments industry in India has been registering healthy growth, driven in part by UPI. While transactions slowed in the last couple of months, mobile wallet-based transactions has finally shown an upsurge with 12% growth in March.

Data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed that in March, 384.89 Mn mobile wallet transactions, worth INR 15,990 Cr, were completed, compared to 345.03 Mn transactions worth INR 14,279 Cr in February.

In terms of Y-o-Y growth, 2018-19 recorded 4.13 Bn mobile wallet transactions worth INR 1.83 Tn. This is 30% Y-o-Y growth in terms of value and 37% in terms of volume of transactions.

Last year, RBI data revealed that mobile wallet transactions fell 13% to 268.79 Mn in March 2018 from 310.01 Mn in February 2018. The total transaction value of mobile wallets dropped 23% to $1,482 Mn (INR 10,000 Cr) from $1,941.6 Mn (INR 13,100 Cr) in the same period.

It is to be noted that transactions through mobile wallets started declining after hitting an all-time high in October 2018, both in terms of value and volume. In October, RBI recorded around 368.45 Mn transactions amounting to INR 18,786 Cr.

Since October 2017, according to industry estimates, digital wallet users dropped by a whopping 80% to 90%, largely as a result of users shying away from full KYC authentication. Many fintech firms have been of the opinion that there has been a sizeable dip in the value of cash loaded into e-wallets by users since KYC was made mandatory.

Here are the other key performances:

• Credit Cards recorded 1772.36 Mn transactions worth INR 6078.81 Bn in 2018-19
• Debit Cards recorded 14,273.90 Mn transactions worth INR 39,042.64 Bn in 2018-19
• Mobile banking had 6,194.80 Mn transactions worth INR 29,577.05 Bn in 2018-19

The struggles of mobile wallets come in direct proportion to the unprecedented growth of government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). In April 2019, UPI recorded 781.79 Mn transactions with a total worth $20.42 Bn (INR 1,42,034.39 Cr). The major players in the mobile wallets industry are Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, MobiKwik etc.  In March 2019, Google Pay reached $81 Bn transactions at an annualised run rate level.

According to NITI Aayog’s report ”Digital Payments (2018 edition)”, India’s digital payments industry is estimated to grow to $1 Tn by 2023.

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