UPI Hits All-Time High With 1.34 Bn Transactions In June

The National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI) said that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 1.34 Bn transactions worth INR 2,61,835 Cr in June 2020.

UPI had recorded over 1.23 Bn transactions worth INR 2.18 Lakh Cr last month. In comparison, UPI transactions tanked 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.

Some of the other transaction details shared by NPCI include:

• NETC FASTag registered 81.92 Mn transactions worth INR 1,511 Cr in June 2020, compared to 55.17 Mn transactions worth INR 1,142 Cr in May 2020.
• IMPS recorded 198.68 Mn transactions worth INR 2.06 Lakh Cr in June 2020, as against 166.68 Mn transactions worth INR 1.69 Lakh Cr in May 2020.

The pandemic and the resultant lockdown affected the digital payments industry as all tour, travel and “non-essential” activities stopped. As the government decided to revive the economy gradually, consumers have found ways to go back to their spending habits. The current UPI numbers are so far the highest transaction the fast payment system has noted.

With this, it is also important to note that the digital payments industries may not be the three-way street anymore. Last month, WhatsApp’s newest digital payments venture WhatsApp Payments told the Supreme Court that it is compliant of all data localisation norms set by the Reserve Bank of India. This has opened up the gates for WhatsApp Payments launch in India and the entry of the newest players too with a whooping 400 Mn userbase.

Currently, Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm are the three biggest players in the UPI segment.

Reserve Bank of India governor, Shaktikanta Das, in February 2020, had highlighted that digital payments accounted for almost 97% of the daily payment system transactions in terms of volume. He also noted that digital payments had accelerated by 50% in terms of volume in the last five years.

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