UPI Leads Digital Payments Revolution, Surpassing Global Competitors

UPI's Incredible Growth in Digital Payments

NEW DELHI: Surpassing the world's leading digital payments platforms, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed nearly Rs 81 lakh crore transactions in the April-July period this year, which is a staggering 37 percent increase (year-on-year). According to the latest data by global payments hub Paysecure, UPI processed 3,729.1 transactions per second - a 58 percent surge over the 2,348 transactions every second registered in 2022 - defeating China’s Alipay, Paypal, and Brazil’s PIX in the number of transactions.

Record-Breaking Transaction Volumes

• In July, UPI transactions crossed Rs 20.6 lakh crore - the highest-ever during a month.
• The value of UPI transactions processed remained above Rs 20 lakh crore for three consecutive months.
• Paysecure examined 40 of the top alternative payment methods globally to reveal this data.

The findings show that India leads the world in digital transactions, with over 40 percent of payments being made digitally, and UPI facilitating a majority of these transactions. According to Dilip Asbe, CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI has the potential to touch 100 billion transactions in the next 10-15 years, backed by credit growth. Credit has already been launched on UPI, and the commercials will be released within a couple of weeks.

Future Prospects for UPI

1. Official figures show that as many as 13.89 billion transactions were recorded on UPI in June, up from 14.04 billion in May.
2. According to a consultancy firm PwC India report, the number of transactions on UPI is expected to jump more than 3-fold from about 131 billion in 2023-24 to 439 billion by 2028-29.
3. This would account for 91 percent of total retail digital transactions.

According to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, based on the encouraging response received from several jurisdictions, the apex bank is now focusing on expansion.