According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), transactions made under the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) saw an increase in September, as a greater number of the population have started using the service to pay for offline purchases, bill payments, cab-rides, among several other utilities.
The UPI was developed under the Digital India initiative and is run by the RBI. It is a system that powers several bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features. Nearly 90% of the transactions on UPI and digital wallets are small-value peer-to-peer fund transfers.
RBI and NPCI data show that UPI transactions are up nearly 70% from about 235.65 million in July 2018 and 165% from about 151 million at the beginning of 2018. In addition, debit card payments through POS terminals or card-reading machines increased to 366 million in July 2018 up from 301 million in January, same year.
There have also been upgrades in the way online payment gateways are designed and presented. This could be a factor that led to the increase in debit card usage as now it is simpler for customers to pay for products online rather than opt for cash-on-delivery.
Additionally, mainstream payment companies are promoting UPI more than their traditional wallet business. In September 2018, ecommerce payment system Paytm registered 137 million UPI transactions, which was 20% of its overall transaction activity.
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