NPCI UPI transactions value crosses $100 billion in October

By Leandra Monteiro

The National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) UPI crossed $100 billion in the last month. According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), this is the first time its UPI has crossed $100 billion in a month, further strengthening its position as India’s most used digital payments system.

The growth in October was fueled by the festive season’s shopping spree and e-commerce sales. With higher vaccination rates and more relaxation of norms by the government, people also started stepping out for purchases more often in October.

Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby shared, “During the pandemic, the need for social distancing fueled the need for contactless payments, and UPI offered this convenience as opposed to card swipes. The led to the increased adoption of UPI as a preferred digital mode of payment, which brought about a drastic behavioral change that has outlived the pandemic. Besides, the current spurt in UPI transactions can be attributed to the economy recovering and increased demand for online shopping availed amid the festive rush. At PayNearby, we have witnessed a 42% increase in UPI transactions owing to the festival season and a result of consumers availing digital payments for everyday necessities, even at the last mile. We are elated to be partnering Bharat in this remarkable digital growth story.”

Mandar Agashe, Founder, Vice-Chairman and MD, Sarvatra Technologies said, “UPI enabled customers across a variety of use cases, from subscribing for an IPO to making recurring payments. UPI is making digital payments uncomplicated and accessible to all, whether person-to-person(P2P) or person-to-merchant(P2M), and, to a large degree, it has been effective in propelling India towards a ‘less-cash’ economy. On a year–on–year basis, our volume of transactions has risen by 300%. We have recorded a sharp rise in the number of transactions across all ticket sizes. As we have been continually onboarding small, mid & large-sized banks onto our UPI platform, we are witnessing a spurt, especially from semi-urban and rural areas apart from urban India. UPI’s determination to provide a safe, rapid, open, and real-time multi-bank payment system is assisting India in becoming a top destination for digital payments platform.”

Additionally, NPCI’s National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) channel, which runs FASTag, also recorded an all-time high of 214.23 million transactions in October, showing signs of the return of road travel with most states easing Covid-19 travel protocols.