UPI Continues To Lead Digital Payments Race In 2024: RBI

UPI Continues To Lead Digital Payments Race In 2024: RBI

SUMMARY

- UPI accounted to 85% of digital payments volume in 2024

- Out of 20,787 Cr digital payments recorded in 2024, 17,221 Cr transactions were done via UP

- The data is given by RBI's Payments System Report 2024

India’s homegrown Unified Payments Interface (UPI) kept ruling the digital payments landscape securing more than 85% of the pie in terms of volume in 2024. 

According to the Payments System Report 2024 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), out of 20,787 Cr digital payments recorded during the year, 17,221 Cr transactions were routed through UPI.

The RBI data pointed out that back in 2018, India recorded 1,683 Cr digital payments, out of which only 375 Cr were made through UPI.

The central bank said that digital payments in India increased 6.7 times in volume and 1.6 times in value in the past five years. 

In the report, the RBI also mentioned its effort to bolster cross-border digital payments. For instance, In 2023, the fast payment systems of India (UPI) and Singapore (PayNow) were linked, facilitating Indian and Singaporean users to make cross-border payments using their respective mobile apps. 

Earlier in 2024, the RBI partnered with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and central banks from four ASEAN countries to launch Project Nexus to facilitate retail cross-border payments. 

The Payments System Report also highlighted the contribution of constant availability of RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) and NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer) in boosting digital payments in the country. In 2024, there were 29.53 Cr transactions pegged at INR 1938.21 Lakh Cr through the RTGS ecosystem. On the NEFT front, transactions reached 926.84 Cr with a value of INR 432.79 Lakh Cr. 

In 2024, the central bank also increased the transaction limit of the UPI Lite Wallet  to INR 5,000 from INR 2,000. Along with this, the offline transaction limit for UPI Lite service was increased to INR 1,000 per transaction from INR 500. 

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