14.96 Bn UPI Transactions In August, Amount To Rs 20.61 Lakh Cr

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) experienced a 41% YoY growth, with a record-breaking 14.96 billion transactions in August. This surge marked a 31% YoY increase but a 0.14% MoM drop in the total transaction amount which reached Rs 20.61 lakh crore, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Sunday, September 1.

The average daily transaction reached 483 million transactions in the month under review, with the average daily transaction amount soaring to Rs 66,475 crore.

Moreover, the value of transactions processed through UPI has consistently exceeded Rs 20 lakh crore over the past four months.

In July, UPI transactions amounted to Rs 20.64 lakh crore, with a total transaction count of 14.44 billion. The average daily transaction volume reached 466 million, with an average daily transaction amount of Rs 66,590 crore, as reported by the NPCI data.

The UPI platform is now adding approximately 60,000 new users each month, also due to the popularity of the RuPay credit card on UPI, particularly in its international launch. The NPCI has also set an ambitious goal of achieving 1 billion UPI transactions per day in the near future.

During the April-July period of this year, UPI facilitated nearly Rs 81 lakh crore in transactions, marking a 37% YoY growth and solidifying its position as the world’s leading digital payments platform.

Additionally, the indigenous digital payment solution has achieved a remarkable milestone, processing an average of 3,729.1 transactions per second, marking a 58% increase compared to the 2,348 transactions recorded per second in 2022. This achievement places it above the global leaders in transaction volume, including Alipay, PayPal, and PIX in Brazil.

India stands at the forefront of digital transaction adoption, accounting for over 40% of all payments being conducted digitally, with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) serving as the primary medium for these transactions.

Dilip Asbe, the CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has expressed optimism regarding the future potential of UPI, anticipating that it could reach a transaction volume of 100 billion in the next 10-15 years. He believes that this growth is achievable, supported by the expansion of credit offerings on UPI. Commercial launches are expected to occur within the next few weeks following the launch of credit on UPI.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) recently unveiled two innovative products at the Global Fintech Fest 2024 in Mumbai: Bharat BillPay (BBPS) for Business and UPI Circle for Delegated Payments. Shaktikanta Das, the esteemed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), made the announcement.

BBPS for Business is crafted to streamline business-to-business (B2B) transactions across a variety of platforms. OPEN, a leading fintech company specializing in providing comprehensive finance solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to automate their financial processes, collaborated with NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL) to bring to set up Bharat BillPay for Business. This product now enables businesses to conveniently manage financing and tax payments.

UPI Circle is designed to facilitate the addition of trusted secondary users through UPI applications. Users can grant these secondary users varying levels of authority for transactional activities, ranging from partial to full. For instance, when an individual adds another person to their UPI circle utilizing the delegated payment services feature, the latter gains the ability to initiate payments using the former’s UPI. Upon the second person’s initiation of a payment on their device, the primary user is notified and has the option to approve the transaction.

The delegation feature is subject to certain limitations, including a maximum monthly limit of Rs 15,000 per delegation and a maximum transaction limit of Rs 5,000.