UPI Transactions Cross INR 11 Lakh Cr Mark For First Time In September 2022

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 678 Cr transactions in September 2022, a growth of 3.2% from August 2022 when it registered 657 Cr transactions. Meanwhile, the transaction volume grew 4% month-on-month (MoM) to INR 11.16 Lakh Cr during September, crossing the 11 Lakh Cr mark for the first time.

In August, UPI transaction volume stood at INR 10.73 Lakh Cr. The transaction volume crossed the INR 10 Lakh Cr mark for the first time in May 2022. 

The total UPI transaction volume in 2022 stands at INR 89.10 Lakh Cr ($1.09 Tn) so far. This is also the first time that UPI volume has crossed the trillion-dollar mark in a calendar year since its launch in 2016. 

In 2021, UPI recorded INR 73 Lakh Cr (approximately $970 Bn) worth of transactions, more than double from INR 33.87 Lakh Cr in 2020.

It is also noteworthy that UPI has clocked 169.65 Mn daily transactions on average in 2022 so far. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said that the UPI ecosystem is targeting 1 Bn daily transactions in the next five years.

Her comment came close to the deadline set by UPI-parent NPCI for the implementation of third-party market cap guidelines. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is reportedly in talks with the government and industry stakeholders for delaying the implementation of the market share cap rules.

At a time when two non-Indian payment apps hold over 80% of the UPI market share, the NPCI has been trying to limit per app share in the total UPI ecosystem to 30%. Thus, market leaders PhonePe and Google Pay will have to decrease their transaction volumes or face transaction failures after reaching the limit. 

Currently, the deadline for third-party application providers (TPAP) guidelines to come into effect is January 2023. 

According to a recent NPCI report, paying for groceries, shopping in supermarkets, recharging phone bills, eating in food courts and restaurants and shopping online, were among the top five transacting categories on UPI. 

As such, payment failures on these two apps with the maximum number of users will likely have a far-reaching effect on the digital payments ecosystem.

Yet, one can be assured that with UPI’s availability on RuPay credit cards and small value payments being processed offline, the overall digital payments ecosystem will flourish. The TPAP guidelines may only be a minor setback, according to industry stakeholders.