NPCI-owned digital payments railroad UPI undoubtedly has become the most acceptable payments mode in the past one year. From 673 million transactions in January, UPI crossed 1 billion transaction mark in October.
The pace of growth continues in November with 1.22 billion transactions worth Rs 1,89,224 crore.
While the volume of transactions registered 6% month-on-month growth, the value of transaction saw a 1.1% decline. Since November counts 30 days, the average value of transaction stands at Rs 6307.4 crore against Rs 6172.9 crore in October, showing an overall surge in volume as well as value.
Since its inception in 2016, UPI has on-boarded over 100 million customers, and it targets to reach 500 million customer base in the next three years. In a quest to become a global product, UPI is expected to go live in the international market, starting from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore.
Where leading digital payments players - PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm - grab more than 90% market share in UPI ecosystem, leading banking partners providing UPI handles to these platforms are said to hold 80% of the overall transactions.
According to a recent report, Yes Bank led the pack with 415 million transactions through its UPI handles in October while SBI, Paytm Payments Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank clocked about 500 million transactions collectively.
Amidst falling market share, BHIM has also transformed by increasing transaction limit, adding more vernacular languages to tap tier III, tier IV market and offering discount and freebies for third-party apps.
The government-promoted digital payments app has partnered with several companies across segments such as e-commerce, travel, gifting, retail, dining and online pharmacy, among others.
To kill monopoly in UPI-based payments space, NPCI was planning to impose a market share cap of 33%. The move would have affected market leaders PhonePe and Google Pay, that have a collective market share of about 70%. However, the plan has reportedly been put on hold.
Besides UPI, NPCI-owned instant real-time inter-bank electronic funds transfer system, IMPS, has recorded 228.08 million in volume of transactions worth Rs 2,02,903.64 crore in November. In October, the figure was recorded at 236.93 million amounting to Rs 2,12,660.44 crore.