UPI Maintains its Growth, Achieves New High with 1.32 Billion Transactions The number of transactions in February grew by 1.4 per cent from 1.30 billion transactions in January
By Shreya Ganguly •
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Providing a major boost to online payment space, Indian government's flagship product payments platform Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 1.32 billion transactions worth INR 2, 21,995 crore in February 2020.
The number of transactions in February grew by 1.4 per cent from 1.30 billion transactions in January worth INR 2, 16,242 crore. According to India Digital Payments Report 2019 by Worldline, UPI emerged as the most preferred mode of transaction in 2019 after recording a transaction volume of 10.8 billion, marking a 188 per cent year-on-year increase.
UPI had broken all records by clocking 1.30 billion transactions worth INR 2 trillion in December 2019
Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm Account for 90 per cent Transactions
According to media reports, Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm are leading the UPI race with 90 per cent contribute while government-promoted BHIM and other apps such as Amazon Pay, FreeCharge, MobiKwik and WhatsApp Pay (beta stage) collectively account for a little more than 5 per cent of the total market share.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) also reported that inter-bank immediate payment platform Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) recorded a decline in its transaction count to 247 million in February from 259 million in January. The transaction value also decreased to INR 2,14,565 crore from INR 2,16,810 crore.
The data revealed that the number of transactions via Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) also declined to 216 million from 225 million in January while the transaction value increased from INR 11,286 crore to INR 11,389 crore.
However, NPCI's National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program which has been developed to make electronic tolling easier has recorded a growth from 93 million transactions to 110 million transactions in February.
Digital Transaction Boom In India Riding On UPI Growth
Indian government has been continuously pushing for a cashless economy. Availability of internet and smart phones at lower prices has resulted in a digital shift in the consumer trends. According to a report titled "Era of Fintech Rising' by the fintech company Razorpay, the consumer demand for digital transactions grew by 338 per cent between December 2018, and December 2019.
The report also revealed that across all the payment options, payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) saw the highest growth of 885 percent during the same period.
The payment platform UPI, developed by NPCI, was launched in 2016 in line with Indian government's "Digital India' goal. UPI quickly became the most preferred mode of digital transactions for people in the country owing to its ease of use and ability to work across apps.
In 2018, NPCI also launched an upgraded version, UPI 2.0, which included addition features including linking of overdraft account, one-time mandate, invoice in the inbox, signed intent and QR for checking the authenticity of merchants while scanning QR.
