UPI achieves new milestone: Clocks 918 Mn transactions in August

UPI has broken all previous records and clocked 918.35 million transactions worth Rs 1,54,504.89 crore in August, a remarkable leap of 11.68% from July when it registered 822.29 million transactions worth 1,46,386.64 crore.

The figure goes against all anticipation that UPI volume will be plateaued at one point of time.

For the NPCI-owned digital payment railroad, achieving two consecutive feats of crossing 800 million mark in July and 900 million mark in August is a strong testimony to the increasing acceptance of the digital transactions in India.

Cashless transactions have now become simpler and convenient thanks to BHIM UPI. #DigitalIndia #InstantPayments #HighOnUPI #NPCI #BHIMUPI @dilipasbe pic.twitter.com/0SJ44HHjbL

— BHIM (@NPCI_BHIM) September 1, 2019

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According to a report by RBI for FY19, UPI has outnumbered transaction via debit and credit card. The report revealed that with 5.35 billion transactions, UPI exceeded the number of payments made on debit cards in FY19, which stood at 4.41 billion.

A recently concluded Boston Consultancy Group's report on digital payments landscape in India also highlighted the future growth for UPI. It said that UPI would dominate the payments space with 59% payments transactions, followed by mobile and internet-based payments.

The significant contribution in UPI volume comes from three digital payment giants - Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm. While Paytm market share declined in the past six months due to shifting focus on merchant-based UPI payments, Google Pay and PhonePe grab the market and combinedly contribute close to 700 million in overall volume.

Meanwhile, a fourth distant player, BharatPe, has also emerged as the fastest-growing company in QR code-based merchant UPI payment. Currently, the Sequoia Capital-backed firm is doing round 7 lakh transactions on a daily basis, making it a strong contender in merchant payments after PhonePe and Paytm.

Further, to promote the number of UPI transactions, NPCI has capped merchant discount rate (MDR) for small ticket size at zero and a maximum of Rs 100 for large ticket size.

Apart from UPI, NPCI-owned IMPS has also recorded its highest volume as well as value in a transaction in August. The inter-bank electronic fund transfer system has recorded 200.14 million transaction worth Rs 1,88,886.25 crore against 189.28 million amounting to Rs 1,82,021.01 crore in July.