The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has achieved a remarkable milestone, registering an additional billion transactions within just two months, reaching a total of 11 billion transactions. This rapid surge, noted as the fastest billion transaction addition to date, was highlighted in the Reserve Bank’s monthly bulletin released on Thursday.
Boosted by the festive season, digital payments experienced substantial growth in October 2023, with year-on-year expansion surpassing the previous month. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) facility through UPI saw robust adoption, nearly doubling the number of mandates in October 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to the RBI monthly bulletin.
The report on the ‘India Digital Payments Report for H1 2023’ revealed that UPI transactions escalated from 9.3 billion in June 2023, a significant increase from 151 million in January 2018. This growth was predominantly driven by Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions, accounting for approximately 56.1% of the total 51.91 billion UPI transactions conducted between January and June 2023.
Moreover, P2M transactions rose from 40.3% in January 2022 to 57.5% in June 2023, while the remaining transactions increased by 22% from H1’22 to H1’23. The value of P2P transactions during the same period surged from ₹45.52 trillion to ₹63.99 trillion, reflecting a 41% increase.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also announced measures to regulate entities involved in payment and settlement for cross-border export/import transactions, designating them as “Payment Aggregators – Cross Border (PA-CB)” under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
In conclusion, the digital payment landscape, particularly through UPI, continues to evolve rapidly, driven by increased adoption, innovative features, and the surge in financial activities during the festive season.
