UPI transactions hit record 657 crore in August

BUSINESS DESK: Mass retail payments platform Unified Payments Interface, popularly known as UPI, posted yet another life high in August.

The platform processed 6.57 billion (657 crore) transactions, totalling ₹10.73 trillion, data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed. UPI transactions by volume rose 85% on year, while it was up nearly 68% by value as compared to last year.

“With NPCI planning to take UPI to overseas markets, this number is only expected to grow exponentially, as UPI will then become a home-grown alternative to SWIFT,” said Jasmin B Gupta, CEO, LXME – India’s first neobank for women.

“Also with credit cards on UPI going live within the next few months, the convenience and scope of digital payments will increase manifold. The linking of credit cards with UPI will enable consumers to make small ticket sized payments on credit which will fuel further economic growth.”

In July 2022, the UPI-based digital transactions’ value stood at ₹10.63 lakh crore. In July the platform had clocked more than 6 billion transactions for the first time since its inception in 2016.

In fiscal 2022, the platform processed 45 billion transactions worth ₹77.94 trillion. In the current year, UPI has recorded over 30 billion transactions worth ₹51.74 trillion so far. The next target for UPI is to process a billion transactions a day in the next 3-5 years.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital payments with UPI becoming the biggest beneficiary. Recently, RBI released a discussion paper on all charges levied on various payment systems, asking all payment system stakeholders to submit feedback on whether it should introduce charges on UPI or it should be market determined. Currently, there are no charges on UPI. (The Economic Times)