The name UPI has become almost commonplace – not only has it revolutionized the rapidly growing fintech sector, but it has enabled people to make easy and fast transactions. The government has been working hard to make it more accessible, and the results have been shown in the data provided by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
According to the data, United Payments Interface (UPI) clocked over a record 4 billion transactions in the month of October (4.21 billion to be exact), while the value of transactions made through UPI crossed $100 billion in a month for the first time. Transactions worth ₹7.71 lakh crore were conducted during October, fueled by the shopping frenzy that accompanies the festive season.
This is a massive increase from how it fared in September – UPI had registered 3.6 billion transactions worth ₹6.5 lakh crores in that time period – a rise of 15%in the number of transactions and 18.5% in the value of transactions. The number of transactions has more than doubled on a year-on-year basis, while the value of transactions recorded a rise of nearly 100%.
It is the pandemic that pushed the five-year-old technology to the mainstream – as people were strapped for cash and unable to go to traditional banks, they took to conducting transactions online. This has led to the record growth of the fintech sector (something we have touched upon) and now, UPI has also claimed a slice of the pie. It crossed a billion transactions for the first time in October 2019, and a year later, processed over 2 billion transactions for the first time. It reached the 3 billion milestones in less than a year, and it seems poised to reach new heights.
Since the start of this, monthly transaction value has grown by close to 79%, while the number of transactions, meanwhile, grew by more than 83% from 230 crores in January. In fact, it has clocked over 3 billion transactions during July, August, and September.
But it has not all been about UPI. Immediate Payments Service (IMPS) has done well too, reaching a record 430.67 million transactions worth ₹3.70 trillion in October. The numbers are a strong increase from its performance in September – 384.88 million transactions worth ₹3.24 trillion.
Additionally, toll collected through NPCI’s National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) channel, which runs FASTag, clocked a record 214.23 million transactions worth ₹3,356.74 crores in October, an increase of 10.7% a month-per month in terms of the number of transactions and 11% in terms of value.
