UPI transaction crosses 10 Bn for second consecutive month

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has crossed 10 billion transactions for the second time on a monthly basis but its volume remained flat in September as compared to August.

UPI recorded 10.56 billion transactions worth Rs 15.8 lakh crore (Rs 15.8 trillion) in September, according to data issued by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

While the transaction volume increased from Rs 15.76 lakh crore in August to Rs 15.8 lakh crore in September, the number of transactions fell by a small margin from 10.58 billion to 10.56 billion in September.

UPI crossed 1 billion monthly transactions for the first time in October of 2019.

As of August, PhonePe alone did close to nearly 5 billion (4,987 million) transactions, controlling 47% market share in terms of volume, according to data sourced from NPCI. Google Pay and Paytm clocked 3.7 billion and 1.36 billion transactions, respectively. The break-up data for September is yet to be disclosed.

Industry experts estimate that UPI adoption will heighten in coming years and likely touch 1 billion transactions on a daily basis. Apart from India, NPCI has expanded UPI to Bhutan, Nepal, Singapore and France and it will soon be available in  Sri Lanka, New Zealand, North America, Middle East, and several European countries.

Earlier this month, Japan-based Hitachi Payment Services launched India's first UPI-ATM in collaboration with NPCI. The move will allow users to transfer funds from one bank account to the other for free and also withdraw money using UPI.