UPI transactions touch 105 Mn in November, BHIM's growth remains flat

UPI transactions (Unified Payments Interface) saw an increase of about 37% in total transaction volume in November 2017. As per recent NPCI data, total UPI transactions in last month recorded 105 million transactions.

Meanwhile, the value of transactions rose about 37% to Rs 9,679 crore in November from Rs 7,057 crore in the previous month.

Currently, there are 61 banks live on UPI platform, however, a major portion of transactions is being driven by smartphone-based payment applications such as Google’s Tez, Flipkart-owned PhonePe and Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM).

Tez drove 74 million transactions and have recorded 10 million users from September 18 to November 18 period. PhonePe reported around 33 million transactions in November with a 50% month on month growth in transaction value.

The government-promoted BHIM recorded only 8.2 million transactions in November with a meager growth of 8% from the previous month. The growth of BHIM has remained almost stagnant month-on-month. Last month, it barely recorded 10% growth in transaction volume.

Despite the increase in the number of UPI transactions, the average ticket size of a UPI transaction slightly increased to Rs 921 in November from Rs 916 in October.

The National Payments Corporations of India had launched the interface for low-value payments and fund transfer across banks in April 2016. The transactions are increasing as more e-commerce players and banks roll out their UPI interface.

Last month, Paytm had integrated BHIM UPI onto its platform as it looks to double its monthly user base over the next two years. Unlike PhonePe and BHIM, Paytm would be leveraging its merchant base for driving Unique Payment Interface-based transaction.

The mobile payments market is growing rapidly in India. A report by Research and Markets found country’s mobile wallet market grew 48.85% during the period of four years (2012-2016). This growth was fueled by rising smartphone penetration, increasing mobile internet penetration and rising disposable income.