UPI blows past 3 Bn transactions in July

Unified Payments Interface or UPI continues its forward march. It has raced past 3 billion transactions for the first time since its inception as the digital payments railroad has registered 3.24 billion or 324 crore transactions worth Rs 6.06 trillion or Rs 6,06,281 crore in July, data released by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) show.

UPI has recorded a 15.7% jump in volume and 10.76% surge in value as compared to June in which it clocked 2.8 billion or 280 crore transactions worth Rs 5,47,373 crore in June. This is the second-highest month-on-month jump in the volume of transactions for UPI in 2021. 

In March, UPI recorded a 19% surge in volume as compared to February. 

The peak in volume can be attributed to the rapid adoption of digital payments. Moreover, several businesses such as food delivery, hospitality and mobility are now in recovery mode after lockdown and related restrictions imposed by the government during the second wave of the pandemic.

NPCI, which has been planning to expand its service to international markets, recently launched its UPI-based payments feature in Bhutan. The service was formally launched on July 13 and Bhutan also became the first country to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment. 

The UPI ecosystem is mainly driven by the top three players namely PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm. It’s worth noting that PhonePe has been dominating the market share in UPI  and has stayed ahead of its two rivals since December 2020 by a significant margin. 

As of June, the Bengaluru-based company had 46% market share in terms of volume followed by Google Pay’s 34.6%. During the same period, IPO-bound Paytm controlled 11.6% share. The top five list is rounded off by Amazon Pay and Axis Bank’s apps while the government promoted BHIM stood at sixth position.

NPCI has been contemplating a cap on the market share of any third party UPI app to 30% to prevent a monopoly of big tech companies in the country. Going forward, it will impose restrictions on such apps. However, the existing players will also get some exemption from the not for profit organization to comply with the new rules.